Harry Potter and the Global Carnaval
by WCTsummer
Summary: After an odd mistake made by a time traveler, Harry stumbles upon a Magical Carnival that changes this life completely
1. Arobat

**Hey Friends,**

 **Here is the start of my newest story. It is a response to an ABC challenge so there will be as many chapters as there are letters in the english Alphabet. I am still in need of a Beta, if you are up to the job let me know! I always love comments, so please leave a little note when you are done reading! I have finished just over half of the chapters so far. Therefore I will post several now, but then updates wont be for a while. Sorry that it wont be coming out all at once!**

 **Enjoy reading!**

Time Travel is a fickle mistress that ought not to be trifled with. This was common knowledge among Department of Mystery employees. Unfortunately decades of working with time travelers tended to breed a certain sense of hubris. This, on the whole, caused no end of problems.

At the end of Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts a man by the name of Ronan Weatherbee traveled back in time on a fairly routine trip. You see Ronan Weatherbee was a brilliant, affable Wizard with a mind for problem solving like the wizarding world rarely ever saw. Unfortunately he was also rather absent minded and tended to forget where he placed things. Such as his wand.

The day before the Hogwarts term ended, Ronan Weatherbee pulled out his antiquated time turner and went back several hours to retrace his steps and find his wand.

On his way Ronan Weatherbee bumped into a menacing looking wizards with eyes filled with avarice and a malicious sort of smile. It was a rather forceful bump which sent the menacing wizard sprawling. The wizard broke his arm in three places and had to spend a week in hospital and was advised not to travel. In the end the malicious wizard and their company spent several weeks longer in Britain then they would have otherwise.

This gave Harry James Potter the chance to stumble upon the most magical Carnaval in the world.

Harry stared in awe at the sea of tents that lay before him. Stings of lights and floating lanterns lit up the colourfully painted canvas tents. People Harry had never seen before, tourist maybe, weaved in and out of the tents. Children laughed and screech. Somewhere someone played a guitar to an upbeat tune that pulled Harry in.

The night before the field had been empty. That morning, Harry had walked past the field and noted that the summer sun had dried out the grass and left only a sea of brown grass and weeds.

But by nightfall, an entire Carnaval had appeared.

Harry wondered past the first few tents. They were painted in bright neon colours. Cheering and laughing could be heard beyond the flapping canvas entrance. Harry wondered further into the carvel though.

He passed a tent painted in soft green and blue pastels, another that was blindingly white and sealed shut. One tent was painted red, orange and yellow. Heat radiated out of the tent and warmed Harry's chilled bones.

Further still Harry found a tent that was the size of an apartment building and nearly as high. Dancing along the tent walls were images of acrobats flying through the air. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could have sworn he saw a couple of the painted acrobates make faces at him.

Curious, Harry entered the tent. He found himself in at the base of a massive semi circle of bleachers that looked down out on a collection of polls, wires and swings that seems to touch the sky.

The stands were packed. Parents and children alike cheered and whistled in excitement. If anyone thought it was strange to see a teenager wondering about at night by themselves, they made no mention of it.

Harry found a place to settle himself and watch as the show started, or possible continued. There didn't seem to be a clear start or end.

Men and women in skin tight clothes and brightly coloured collars flew through the air.

A man in a bight blue outfit walked backwards on the tightrope. He paused halfway across to jump several times, going higher and higher each time. Until he was high enough to grab hold of the swinging bar far above the rope.

With practiced ease the man set the swing in motion. Harry watched in wonder as the acrobats caught each other mid air, only to throw one another around the sky like one might tow a quaffle.

The acrobats had lean bodies with long hair tied up in various styles. They all had curiously pointed ears. Harry wondered why that was, but his wonder over took his curiosity and he thought very little of the ears.

After a good long time, Harry wondered out of the show. It had been hours but the acrobates where still effortless fling one another about. Many audience members started transfixed by the show.

Harry however wanted to see more of the Carvel. It had showed up so suddenly, Harry wasn't sure it would stay long. It might just leave as suddenly as it came.

Harry wondered out of the massive tent and back towards those he had passed ages ago.

He came to the soft blue and green pastel tent. When he entered, he found himself in a little observatory that look out into a massive fish tank. There were tropical fish, and whales, manatees and dolphins that swam by. Harry wondered what sort of tank he was looking into when something swam from the murky abuse below. It was a young man dress in tacky hawaiian swim short and a shark tooth necklace.

The boy seemed as surprised as Harry.

"How'd you get in there?" Harry asked the fish tank.

The boy didn't even appear to be holding his breath. He swam in place for a moment before looking up to the left. Harry followed his gaze. A ragged looking walking path lead to a sear rockcliff that overlooked the tank.

Harry clamoured up the the rocks to meet the man in the fish tank.

Just as Harry reached the cliff, the man climbed effortlessly up the rocks. He didn't have webbed feet or fines. In fact he looked perfectly normal. If he were wearing Gryffindor swim short he could have fit right in at the Hogwarts lake in the Spring.

Potter, still panting from scrambling up the rocks, had to motion to wait a moment.

When he caught his breath, he wheezed, "I'm Harry Potter, Who are you?"

"I'm Finnbar, or just Finn is fine"

"Finnbar?" Harry asked having never meet someone named Finnbar before. It didn't seemed like a popular name.

Finn grinned, He grabbed a piece of his dripping blood hair, "It means blond Hair. My parents weren't feeling terribly creative I'm afraid. I'm a Selkie from up north."

Laughing, Harry reach out a hand, "I live just a couple of blocks away. What brought you to work at the Carnival? You do work here right?"

Harry looked at the Finn dripping wet on the rocks like he was perfectly at home. It was possible he snuck in for a swim but it seemed unlikely.

Finn's face clouded over. His muscles tensed and a thundress look crossed over him. "I don't _work_ here." Finn pointed the the skin coloured collar that Harry hadn't noticed he was wearing. It was the same design as the acrobats had on. Looking at it closer, Harry could see that it was covered in runes and locked into place.

A growing dread filled Harry.

"Do you … You want to be here, right?"

Animosity seemed to fill the Selkie, "Of course not. Who'd want to be a slave?!"

Harry could feel his hero complex kicking in. So much for a relaxing summer.

"Those collars keep you here then?"

Finn nodded slowly, "That and the Ringmaster has my pelt. If someone steals a selkie pelt, they have complete control over them. If he wanted, the Ringmaster could order me to stop breathing and I'd have to comply. Even if you get this stupid collar off, I'll still be stuck here."

"I'll find a way to free you," Potter promised. Someone had to advocate for the trapped creatures of the Carnaval. Already his mind was working to devise a plan. There had to be a way to get the pelt away from the Ringmaster.

Had he know how long it would take or the sacrifices he would have to make, Harry might not have agreed so readily.


	2. Broken

The next day started with Harry making eggs, sausage, bacon, french toast, and pancakes for his lumbering cousin and uncle. Aunt Petunia had recently gone on an all liquid diet. She made smoothies that looked like vomit and tasted just as good.

Harry tried not to gauge when he washed the blender out. Harder still, was trying not to laugh when his Aunt bragged to the neighbours that she'd lost half a pound.

In the week Dudley had been home from Smeltings, he'd already gained back 5 pounds. If anyone needed a diet it was him.

Harry kept such thoughts to himself. He served himself some toast and bacon on a napkin and snuck out of the house before his Uncle or Aunt could give him a list of chores for the day.

At first, Harry had wanted to go back to the Carnaval. He needed to find a way to get Finn his pelt back. Unfortunately, Harry hadn't made it to the end of the block before bellicose crys came from Pier's front yard.

Piers and Dudley were uselessly lobbing a basketball in the general direction of the hoop. Neither looked like they had a hope in hell of scoring.

Clearly they wanted to play a game they had a little more success with: Harry Hunting.

Harry dropped his napkin of food and sprinted in the direction of the park and nearby woods.

Trees were the best way to out run Piers and Dudley. Neither were limber enough to dodge around stationary objects with much grace.

Harry leaped over a park bench, ducked under a swing set and lauched himself over the chain linked fence that separates the park and the woods. He bolted head long into the trees. Zig Zagging around trees, Harry strained to listen for his cousin.

Apparently 10 months at boarding school had done wonders for Dudley stamina because the fat lump was still chasing him despite usually giving up by now.

A bit of framillar panic set into Harry. It had been a while since he'd been caught by Piers and Dudley but he can feel the phantom pains of a boot to his gut just thinking about it.

Spurred on, Harry lept over a bolder and ducked under a fallen tree. Without breaking stride, Harry took a running leap at a bent over tree. He volt himself onto a small rocky cliff. Harry grabbed hold of the cliff with one hand and pulled himself upwards.

He was nearly on top when something sharp stuck his hand.

Reflectively Harry jerked back. He let go of the rock face and went tumbling down into a painful heap.

Harry let out a long terrified scream as his whole body fell onto his outstretched left arm. It snapped like a twig.

Harry curled into himself. Half gasping half sobbing in pain.

Something made Piers and Dudley stutter to a stop. Rather then getting in a few more kicks, they threw a couple of rocks from a safe distance then turned and fled before any passer byers could discern what happened.

Harry looked down at his brusquely mangled bloody arm. Sticking out of his hand was Dudley's pocket knife. He must have throw it at Harry. It was a damn lucky thing it didn't hit him in the back of the neck.

Harry rolled into a seated position and cradled his arm to his chest.

In short frenzied gasped, Harry tried to suppress the pain.

He needed to get back to the house, clean up and splinter his arm before Aunt Petunia saw him. If she saw the state of his arm, Harry knew he'd be without dinner for a month. 'Waste of time taking him to the hospital' Aunt Petunia would no doubt say. She'd have some snippy comment about his recklessness, just like his father. She'd make some snide remark about his parents causing their early deaths.

Harry didn't have it in him to put up with that and he couldn't very well go to the clinic on his own. Instead he'd have to fix up his arm alone. He'd done it before.

Memories of Madam Pomfrey waving her wand and mending his bones came to mind. A potion, a spell, and a good night's rest is all that's needed in the wizarding world.

Harry bit back a groan. Here in the muggle world. Harry had several week of agony to look forward to.

He settled his breath as best he could before stumbling to his feet and making his way back home.

His glasses were chipped and he had scratches all over his legs and chest. They strung fiercely but the pain from his mangled left arm and the adrenimle still coursing through him kept Harry from noticing.

It was sheer dumb luck that Aunt Petunia was too busy peering over the fence at their neighbours to notice Harry sneaking in through the back door.

Dudley had opted not to come home and Uncle Vernon was dozing in front of the TV which was blasting at max volume.

Harry thanked every deity he could think of and every famous witch and wizard that came to mind.

He grabbed his emergency potion chest from the loose floorboard and staggered into the bathroom.

It took nearly an hour of sobbing, shaking movements to clean up his arm and various cuts and scrapes. Harry took a potion for his pain and one to help his bones mend. Then he splintered his arm.

Harry was tempted to just pass out, but he knew he'd never get away with leaving the bloody mess in the bathroom. He whipped everything up with Dudley's towel and threw it under his bed to wash latter. Then he stripped down as best he could with only one arm and crawled into bed.

The adrenal faded and the potioned kicked in. Harry was passed out before lunch time and didn't wake up until the following afternoon.


	3. Circular

A feeling of burning agony woke Harry bright and early. He had to bite back a moan in fear of waking Aunt Petunia. Dudley and Vernon slept like the dead but the slightest ruffle seemed to wake the tireless old hag.

In the dark, Harry fumbled for the pain relief potion he had left by his bed. Careful not to knock it over, Harry patted down the rickety old side table until his fingers curled around smooth cold glass.

Harry preemptively grimaced. There was nothing in the world that tasted worse than pain relief potion but it was a necessary evil. Harry pulled on his glasses but his vision was still blurry with pain. He felt his stomach convolse, but he kept down the potion through sheer force of will.

Harry sat staring at the far wall of his bedroom until the potion kicked in enough to raise and start the day. He had slept the entire day before. His body and magic was desperately trying to heal his arm. His Aunt had not be impressed. Harry knew her well enough to know that if she saw him at all today she'd have a chore list a foot long.

Harry struggled into a pair of sweatpants and a sweater. The he shuffled out the back door of the house.

At first, Harry thought of going to the park but there was a chance that Peers and Dudley would head there first when they finally got up.

Instead, Harry walked the opposite direction, towards the bakery and the empty field were the Caravel had been three days prior.

The Carnival was originally scheduled to leave the day before Harry returned from Hogwarts but with the delayed they still hadn't left.

It was bright and early yet the Carval was still in full swing. Families meandered in and out of the tents. None of them paid Harry any mind. He might as well not have been there at all.

In the lantern lit darkness of Harry's first visit, he'd missed the circular barrier around the outside of the carnaval. A long band of runes were etched into the ground in a giant ring.

Harry wondered if the ring created wizard space inside. There certainly seemed to be a great deal more tents than ought to have fit inside the little fallow field.

Harry pulled from his back pocket a small leather journal that Hermione had gifted him during their last exam period. Harry knew full well that Hermione had _meant_ for Harry to use the journal to collect notes as he studied and revised. With all the shenanigans with Sirius Black, Harry hadn't the mind for note taking and exams.

Now the book had become a small research journal where Harry jotted down questions he had or odd things he found so that he could research them later. Personally, Harry thought that muggles had it about right with their easy access to technology and vast wealth of knowledge accessible by an easy to use search engine.

The magical tradition of randomly scanning through books was hilariously inefficient but it was the only way about it.

Harry rested the journal on the ground and drew out some of the runes in his journal. He was careful not to jare his left arm, but it made his already untidy scrawl practically illegible.

When Harry was done, he stashed his journal and headed aimlessly into the Carnaval. Harry wondered past several unique tents, none of which caught his attention enough to investigate. The red, orange, and yellow tent felt too hot today. The white tent was still sealed up tight. There were several ordinary beige coloured tents. Melodieds made of Flutes and guitars floated out of smell of baked apple pie out of another.

Harry wondered past all of them until he came to a eggshell blue tent, no bigger than a Tepii with soft white clouds painted on the canvas. When the wind blew, the clouds looked as if they were floating along the tent walls and right into the sky above.

Curious, Harry ducked under the opening flap. Something large and circular knocked at Harry's knees and right hand. Reflectively, Harry grabbed hold. It seemed to be a large metal hoop. Without thinking very much about what was going on, Harry stepped up onto the hoop and braced himself.

His instincts might very well have saved his life. A moment later the floor of the tent fell away, the flaps sealed shut and the sky seemed to open up.

Harry's stomach went straight up his esophagus and then shot back down through his intestines. Trembling, Harry sat on the large golden hoop like a broomstick. Never in all his years of flying had Harry gone this high. He was well above the clouds, in the Stratosphere possible. Nothing but a turning, violent ocean could be seen below.

Harry looked up over the clouds just in time to see them part. A herd? A coven? A murder? Flock perhaps? Anyways, a shit ton of dragons came crashing through the clouds in a wave of scaly majestic might. They split off into smaller groups. Several of the younger dragons flew in high circular loops. Harry imagined they were daring each other to fly ever higher, Chanalling Ircurous' record.

The oldest dragons flew slowly in a line. Their heads turned to one another in long growling conversation.

One of the smallest Dragon, barely bigger than the average house cat, flew lopsidedly over to Harry.

They landed on the top of the hoop. Much to Harry's amusement, the little dragon curled their tale around the hoop and then flung themselves down to hang upside down like a possum.

" _Who are you?"_ The little dragon asked.

Harry blinked in surprise. The Dragon spoke a more flighty version of parseltongue. It was lighter and more melodic than any serpent Harry had heard but still perfectly understandable.

" _I'm Harry, Harry Potter. Who are you?"_

If the little Dragon was at all surprised by Harry's response, Harry wasn't seeing it. The little Dragon mostly looked insatiably curious as most young children do when faced with something novel and strange.

The little Dragon reach out a tiny paw at Harry, " _I'm Norbert Mommy."_

'Norbert?' Harry thought to himself. What were the odds that there were two very young welsh green dragons in the world.

Tentatively, Harry reached out his index finger and shock the little dragon's paw.

" _Where are you from?"_

" _A school. I was raised by Hagrid Mommy for a while, but then I had to come here. Hagrid said I had to be with other dragons. I miss him though. I don't like it here much at all. I eat much better with Hagrid. Hagrid gave me …."_ Norbert let out a long sad trill that reminded Harry of a human whine, " _Now all I get is half eaten fish and the occasional tourist."_

" _Dragons eat people?"_ Harry asked, alarmed.

Norbert nodded slowly, a bit unsure of himself as if he just realized who, or rather what, he was talking to. " _Er. Only the no magic kind."_ The little dragon looked hopefully at Harry, hoping to have eased his worries.

Harry bit down his panic and tired to look around for an escape without looking too obvious.

" _The exit is over there, past that pink cloud"_ Norbert pointed with one paw at a small cloud that sat oddly stationary in the air. It was coloured a faint pink as if it were sunset even though it was just barely midday.

Luckily, Harry was near enough to the cloud that he figured he could rock his hoop close enough to leap onto the cloud and open up what appeared to be large fluffy curtains.

Norbert gave a whole bodied wiggle to get Harry's attention. In the light, Harry noticed a thin silver band around the little dragon's neck. It was made of metal where Finn's collar was made of cloth, but it was unmistakably the same slave chollar, runes and all.

Harry was about to ask Norbert about it when a massive, ancient dragon with a mesmerizing blue gem embedded into his belly flew right up to Harry. The great beasts head was as big as Harry's whole bed room.

" _What is this? Another Lord sent by Princess Kaguya on an impossible quest! I shall enjoy you as a snack!"_ The great dragon snapped his jaw forward at Harry.

Without a second option, Harry leaped out of the way, off the hoop and into the air without a plan.

Luckily one of the larger child Dragons had swooped over. The Chinese fireball dove under Harry and caught him with ease.

" _Never mind Uncle, He's gone senile centuries ago. Everyone know Princess Kaguya went back to the moon."_ The teenage Dragon said offhandedly as if that ought to make a great deal of sense to Harry. Having been well trained by Hermione. Harry made a few non committing noises of agreement.

Norbert dove around Uncle's snout and glided down to join Harry on the back of the Chinese Fireball who was flying away from the pink cloud and towards the swarm of young dragons.

" _We're just lucky that the crazy death eater that trapped us here doesn't understand our language otherwise he'd realise Uncle isn't temperamental like the wizard says, Uncle is bat shit crazy."_

" _Whatever,"_ The chinese Fireball growled, small clouds of smoke shot out of their nostrils, " _I dare that lying malicious land lover to come visit someday when Uncle is in a mood. That wizard would be two gobles then swallowed before he could draw his wand. The only reason we're stuck here is because we were tricked."_

Death Eater. That was illuminating. A death eater ran the Carnival? That certainly explained the slavery and the death traps. Harry got the impression that the mysterious and interesting magical Carnival was a lot more dangerous than he'd originally expected.

Thinking back to it, Harry wondered if any of the other guest ever left the acrobats tent. Some of the other guest had looked rather thin.

Harry spent the rest of his afternoon riding Dragons up into the sky and talking to various dragons about their life back in Romania before the carnaval.

When Harry was too hungry to ignore it any longer, the Chinese Fireball flew him to the pink cloud. As Harry got off, the Chinese Fireball gave him one of their scales. They had seen their older handler collect and use their scales to heal broken bones back in Normania. They gave the potion recipe as best as they could remember it. Harry jolted it down in his journal, thanked the Dragon and headed out to find some food.


	4. Donuts

The next Day, Harry escaped before his Aunt could catch him and hand him the three foot long list of chores that was on fridge. Harry knew he was pushing his luck by avoiding his chores for so long, but his arm still ached and the lure of the Carnaval was too strong to ignore.

Even after discovering the sinister origins of the Carnaval, Harry was still intrigued by the various oddly coloured tents. Not to mention, he had made a promise to find Finn's pelt and free him and the dragons. If Harry was going to make good on his promise, he needed to investigate further.

This time when Harry got to the Carnaval, he wondered past the alluring tents and past the massive, apartment sized tent the acrobats were in. He went beyond was a myriad of plain looking tents for what felt like blocks. Finally, Harry came to an alleyway of stalls. They were each distinctly designed and coloured. Each and every one of them sold food. There were stalls from all around the world. Even the signs were in different languages.

Harry walked down the mouth watering alley taking in the orchestra of different languages. He recognized French, Russian, Chinese, and Italian but there were easily three dozen more languages that Harry didn't recognize. One couple passed by Harry speaking a language with clicks in it. Another small child whistled a tone to their parents and the parents responded in a low toned tweets.

The vendor's, with there multi ethnic options, also seemed to accept every currency. Harry saw people paying with pounds, american dollars, Canadian dollars, Mexican Pesos, and Wizard gallons.

Harry search his pockets for whatever loose coins he had. Luckily a few spare gallons were in his back pocket from the last time he'd gone to Hogsmeade.

Harry found a fish and chips stand and walked up to order some lunch.

The vender seemed to be a bit bored with the slow pace of the day and was happy to answer Harry's questions. Harry stood with his journal on the counter beside his heaping plate of freshly fried fish and chip.

The first thing Harry noticed when he started interviewing the man was that the vender wasn't wearing a collar.

"So are you hired to work here then?" Harry asked as innocently as he could. He didn't want to give away that he knew about the slavery. There was no telling how the Ring Leader and his actual employees would react to being exposed.

The vender gave a good natured laugh. The kind that come right from the gut and always comes with a grin and sparkling eyes. "Not at all lad. We have to apply for a spot at the carnaval. All of use vendors pay a hefty toll to work our wears here. You pay more to be closer to the front of the alley, but I'm happy enough where I am. Lots of business in the evening when people are looking for a spot of dinner."

The vender was a merry looking man with a pudgy belly and a round face. He wore a white apron and a cartoonish chefs hat.

"So you pay to be here? Do you travel with the Carnaval then?"

"Not at all, I normally just rent my little square for the week that the Carnival is in England. This year they've stayed on longer. The Ringmaster hasn't said why but I'm darn glad for it."

"Any word when the carnival is leaving?" Harry hadn't realized he was working on borrowed time. It had been nearly a week since he'd promised the Selkie that he'd find the pelt.

"Haven't heard any word yet, mind that don't mean much. The Ring Master is known for showing up out of the blue and given you an hours warning to pack up and get out."

"The Carnaval can move out that fast?"

"I can tell your one of my sort boy so I'll let you in on a little secret, a few spells here and there and this here carnaval can be gone in hour without a trace. It'll look as if it weren't ever here to begin with."

"You're a wizard then?"

"George Abbot, at your service"

"I'm Harry, are you related to Hannah Abbott? We go to Hogwarts together"

"You don't say? She'd my Niece. My favourite niece too, but don't tell her I said that."

Harry looked down at his little leather notebook in wonder. The Abbott family was a well known light family. Plus George seemed impossibly nice. It seemed unlikely that he knew about the slavery.

"Can you tell me a bit about the Ringmaster?"

George Abbot nodded sagely, "A mysterious one, he is. I've seen his wand work before and I'm fairly certain he went to Hogwarts but he'd never admit it to you. He's been traveling for nearly a decade and a half now. He collects more and more attractions every time he lands somewhere."

"He pretends to be some hardened criminal type but he's taken in a whole menagerie of displaced creatures and he takes darn good care of them. Gives them each their own habitat and space to move about. He's not half the villain he pretends to be."

Harry really, really doubted that.

The idea that this carnaval was better than a magical zoo got Harry's hanckes up. Maybe Hermione was right. Maybe there needed to be a great deal of changes to the wizarding law around creature rights.

With a great deal on his mind, Harry excused himself from the stall and headed further into the Carnaval. Harry spent all day wondering between tents looking for the Ring Masters tent, but despite his best efforts, Night came and Harry was no closer to finding Finn's pelt then he was at the beginning of the week.

Harry bought a dozen donuts to eat on his way back home. Then, he headed back to Privet Drive desperately hoping the carnival would still be there when he returned.

When Harry laid down that night, his left arm aches, his legs felt like jelly and his mind was racing like a threseal in the wind. It was nearly day break before he finally got to sleep.


	5. Enjoyment

It was Harry's kind of luck that he slept in the next day. When he finally woke up it wasn't because his arm was in excruciating pain, he was beginning to ignore that.

It wasn't because of the overwhelming panic that the Carnaval might have disappeared already, though that was the first thing that went through his mind.

No, what woke Harry Potter up was a very framillar, dredd inducing pouding at his bedroom door and a shrill voice commanding him to go cook breakfast.

Aunt Pantun woke up before him.

'Fuck Fuck Fuck' ran on loop in Harry's mind as he stagger out of bed and down into the kitchen. He made toast, eggs, bacon, and a fruit tray as fast as he could. Hoping he could vanish out the back door before his Aunt could hand him the list from off the fridge. It was nearly four feet long.

"And boy, when you're done that get working. I expect all your chores to be done by tomorrow morning or you wont be getting a crumb of food this week." His aunt whisked into the kitchen grabbed her jar of bright green gunk and headed off to the neighbourhood garden party three doors down.

"Serves you right, boy. Trying to be evasive with your responsibilities. Pushing them on your poor overworked aunt. You're a no good delinquent just like ..." Harry snatched the list off the fridge and headed out into the garden before he lost his temper with his Uncle.

Harry looked down at his list. In neat handwriting the list said:

Rack the front yard

Rack the backyard

Weed the vegetable garden

Prune the Apple tree

Water the roses

Scrub down the garden bird bath

Clean the rain truscles

Harvest a bushel of

Rosemary

Thime

Basil

Oragono

Mint

Paint the herb garden fence Blue (Paint is labeled in the shed)

Organize the shed shelves

Sharpen the chainsaw

Sharpen the pruners

Clean out the mower

Mow the front and back law

Scrub down the front walkway

Fix the hinges on the front fence gate

Wash the outside windows

Scrub the front entrance way

Dust off the living room

Vacuum the house

Do Dudley's laundry

Clean Dudley's room

Take the garbage out

Scrub out all of the garbage cans

Scrub the kitchen floor (get in behind the fridge and stove)

Clean out the fridge

Clean out the pantry

Organize the dish cupboard

Polish the silverware

Rainse off the good china

Wash the linens in the guest room

Dust the guest room

Fix the draw in the guest room nightstand

Harry could have cried. There were enough chores to keep Harry enslaved for a week much less a day with a broken left arm and no food.

Harry figured he'd start outside before the sun got too hot.

He started at the top and worked his way down. He got as far as pruning the Apple tree before the heat got to him and he had to move inside. Harry scrubbed the front entrance and the kitchen all with one hand. His left arm he fit into a sling since his Uncle and Aunt were out.

Then he dusted the living room and vacuumed the house.

It was a huge surprise to go into Dudley's room to see it was already cleaned and his laundry was finished and put away. Shocked, Harry scratched them off his list and headed down to the kitchen. The garbage was already gone and the cans were collected in the laundry room waiting to be cleaned.

Harry scrubbed them out and set them on the drier to dry out. Then he headed back into the kitchen to deal with the fridge and pantry. Both jobs were already done. The silverware and good china were waiting on the kitchen table. Harry sat himself down and began awkwardly polishing the knives.

He was half way through the forks when Dudley came into the kitchen. He didn't say a word. He reached under the sink, grabbed several garbage bags and left again.

Harry tracked his cousin's footsteps through the house. Clearly Dudley was putting the garbage cans back where they belongs.

Then, shock upon shock, Harry could hear his cousin in the guest room.

The Laundry machine started back up again. Dudley was doing the sheets.

Dudley walked back through the kitchen and out into the yard. He came back through a moment later with the tool box.

Harry had just finished polishing the china and cleaning up the silverware when Dudley came into the kitchen again.

Dudley put the china and silverware away then took the tool kit out to the front gate. Harry grabbed the scrubbing pale and headed out after his cousin to scrub the walkway.

"Not that I mind," Harry started timidly when they were both in the shed. Harry organizing shelves, and Dudley sharpening various tools, "but why are you helping."

"I don't like you freak"

"Really? I would have never guessed"

"But the reason you're so far behind is because you've been sleeping that off," Dudley motioned oddly to Harry's left arm. His hand was bleeding again from where Dudley's blade had pierce his hand and his arm was starting to heal in an odd angle. It really wasn't a very pleasant sight. Plus it smelt off since Harry hadn't the chance to clean it in several days.

"They think I'm a psychopath. I have to see a therapist every week and they have a bunch of paper work they're trying to get mom and dad to sign."

"Well it's a good thing you proved them wrong" Harry said in fake cheery tones.

Dudley put the chain saw back on the wall and pulled pruners down, "They think because of that things with Ms. Figs cats-"

"You mean when you and Piers kidnapped a bunch of kittens and killed them in increasingly more horrific ways".

"We were just kids."

"Most kids bring pets home, Dudley, not go out and kill other peoples."

"That's just in movies."

Harry snorted in disbelief, "Sarah Tanning brough that snake she found in her garden to show and tell in grade one." Harry point out, ticking it off on his one good hand, " Trevor Mcginn bragged about having a pet fox in grade 4. In grade 5, The Jobson twins rescued a pigeon and Bobby whatshisface raised a baby mouse he found in his cereal."

Dudley's eyes glazed over as if he was carrying on with the list in his head. Finding and raising pets was something of a childhood pastime in their neighborhood. Not that the Dursley parents ever approved.

"Well," Dudley started slowly, "Maybe I should do that then. When we're done, you have to help me catch something to raise."

"Your mom's allergic to cats and your dad hates dogs. What are they going to say to you bringing home an injured todd?"

Dudley shrugged, "They never punish me."

Harry motioned to the shed around them, "No they take it out on me. Why should I help you get me in trouble."

"Even if they do get you in trouble, I'll do whatever chores they give you."

"And bring me food."

Dudley went oddly quiet for a long moment. He started at Harry as if just seeing him for the first time. "I think I get my psychopathic tendencies from my parents."

"You don't say?"

Dudley stayed silent for the rest of the day. With Dudley's able bodied help, they were able to get through the list of chores before dinner time. Harry put a roast in the oven to cook and set out a note for his aunt.

Then Harry and his cousin pulled on their shoes and headed into the woods.

It felt surreal to Harry, who had spent so many years the victim of Harry Hunting to be out in the woods looking for an injured animal that Dudley could try rescucing.

The odds were certainly stacked against them. An injured animal needing rescuing only showed up once or twice a year in orderly Privet Drive.

Luck was on their side though. They found a small fox kit with a broken back leg hidden in a half rotten log.

Harry realized that the most responsible thing was to call someone. An animal shelter or PETA or something but Harry was invested in the both the foxes well being and his own.

Harry helped Dudley wrap the little fox up and take her back to the house. Once they were sheltered in Dudley's room, Dudley showed Harry how to use Google to do research.

It was probably one of the kindest times Dudley had ever talked to Harry. He was patient and understanding. It was almost like having Neville explain plants to Harry.

By the time dinner was ready and Aunt Petunia called them for Dinner, Harry had entirely forgotten that it was _Dudley_ who he had been spending all day with.

At dinner, Aunt Petunia talked at length about how terrible the other neighbour garden were and how she was certain she would win Best Garden again this year. Privately, Harry told himself that it was he who won every year. After all Harry was the only one who looked after the garden. Point and case, the list from today.

Uncle Vernon then talked about his meetings that were planned for the next day, Monday. Dudley and Harry stayed quiet. When dinner was done, Harry washed the dishes and Dudley cleared the table.

It was clear that Aunt Petunia didn't approve of her little dudykins working but she didn't directly tell him not to.

The kitchen was cleaned in record time. Harry and Dudley went back up to Dudley's room to care for the little injured fox.

When the fox was properly bandaged up (mostly Harry's doing) and feed, Dudley pulled out his newest gaming system and set up a racing game for Harry to play with him.

It was near midnight and they were trying out a shooting game about the second world war, Dudley rattling off long winded anicodes to Harry who had never studied the wars before and barely knew of their existence, when something very large smashed into Harry's window. Dudley grabbed the baby fox off his bed and followed Harry into his room.

Harry's window was smashed to bits and sitting in the middle of the room was Norbert the baby dragon.

"That's...That's….Harry, that's a dragon."

"Specifically that's Norbert." Harry carefully stepped around the broken glass in his socked feet and bent down in front of the crying dragon.

Norbert crawled into Harry's lap and stuffed his nose under Harry's right armpit.

" _They're leaving tonight!"_ Norbert sobbed.

Harry's chance to save Finn and the Dragons was coming to a close and Harry didn't even know what the Ringmaster looked like much less how to get the pelt back.

Without a second though, Harry began grabbing clothes, potions, Hogwarts books, and his wand out.

Dudley vanished for a moment only to reappear with an empty sports bag. He flung it at Harry and then vanished again.

In less then five minutes Harry was standing on the back garden with Dudley's sports bag slung over his shoulder and Norbert curled on his shoulders.

Harry was just about to mount his broom when Dudley came out the back door with his own sports bag. It was open a bit and the baby fox's head was peeking out to investigate the night air.

"I'm coming too" Dudley announced.

Harry looked uneasily at his cousin. Sure Dudley had spent the last 24 hours being nice to Harry but he'd spent the decade before that beating the living daylights out of him.

Not to mention Harry was about to run off with a magical Carnaval.

"Dudley It might be a while before I'm back. I might not be back until September. I don't even know where I'm going."

"I'm coming." Dudley said it not with snarky finaility like he normally did when commanding Harry. Dudley sounded scared like he was convincing himself more than Harry.

"Up"

Dudley looked up in the sky oddly. Harry grinned and grabbed his broomstick. "I was talking to my broom.

Dudley looked just about to make a snarky comment when he caught sight of Harry hovering a foot of Aunt Petunia perfectly manicured lawn.

Dudley walked over and climbed on behind Harry. Dudley's bag sat between them to shelter the little fox from the wind. Which was more thoughtful than Harry through his cousin was capable of.

If Harry had more time, He might have flown a little slower, but they were racing against the clock. When they arrived at the half cleaned up Carnaval, Dudley was as pale as a ghost and trembling head to toe. He didn't make an snarking comments though.

Harry and Dudley rushed over towards the dragon tent, but at the last minutes Harry pulled them into the Selkie tent.

The last time Harry was in the Dragon tent they said they ate Muggles. A week ago Harry would have gladly feed his cousin to the dragons but now it seemed wrong. Instead they clamoured up to the top of the cliff side that overlooked the massive fish tank were Finn lived.

Finn was laying on the rocks shivering in only his hawaiian swim trunks and his shark tooth necklace.

"Hey Finn," Harry called out.

Finn jerked awake and started beady eyed at Harry.

"Harry?" Finn looked at Harry's bag hopefully but when he saw the guilty look on Harry's face the hope drained away.

"I haven't found much yet so were coming with the carnaval." Harry explained, tumbling behind him, "This is my cousin Dudley. He's a muggle."

"Dudley, this is Finn, he's a Selkie."

"Like you can turn into a seal?"

"Some Selkies turn into Sea Lions, Walruses, or narwhals, but yeah I can turn into a seal. Well, not right now. The Ringmaster has my pelt. Without it I'm trapped here."

Dudley looked alarmed.

"Harry we have to find this guys fur."

"Pelt" Finn corrected mildly.

"I know Dudley, That's why we're here. The Carnival is leaving so we need to follow."

Dudley looked around the rocky cliff they sat on and down at the large fish tank and the small glassed in observatory for guests.

"Odd, I never saw this Carnaval before. How long was it here for?"

"Longer than normal. We normally never stay more than a week but we were here for nearly three weeks." Finn sniffed and looked hungrily at Dudley's bag.

Harry had remember to grab all of his money to buy food but with the Carnaval packed up the vendors were gone.

Thankfully, Dudley thought farther ahead. He'd bought a couple of cans, some freeze dried food and a portable, lightweight camping stove that was as small as a coffee mug.

Dudley set some beans to cook and Harry pulled out several winter cloaks from his bag and unshrunk them. Finn and Dudley both wrapped themselves up against the cool night air.

"How'd you manage to shrink all that stuff?" Dudley motioned to the Sports bag Harry had in his lap that held almost everything he owned. "I thought you could do no magic away from school?"

"I'm hoping all the magic of the carnaval will hide the magic I did."

A thought. A beautiful, wonderful thought came to Harry. He pulled out his wand and a small book on Magical Healing spells Fred and George Weasley had given him as a lark. Near the back was a spell to mend bones.

Harry pulled out his wand and practiced the spell a few times before pointing it at his own arm.

It wasn't a perfect mend. Madame Pomfrey would have to fix his arm again in September but the pain was gone and the bones were stitched back together. Next, harry fixed the massive cut on the back of his left hand.

Dudley looked positively stunned. "Nothing Normal folks have beats that."

Harry grinned, "If it makes you feel better, nothing Wizards have beats Google."


	6. Fright

The next morning, Harry woke up to the unusual feeling of being rocked. Harry kept his eyes closed and let his mind wonder. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind he vaguely remembered being rocked like this when he was really young but Harry couldn't remember why or who he was with.

When Harry opened his eyes he found himself starting at Finn and Dudley both sleeping peacefully under winter cloaks Harry had lent them.

Harry sat up and rubbed the tiredness from his eyes.

They could eat more of the food Dudley brought for breakfast, but Harry wanted to preserve their stash for as long as the could. Instead, Harry got changed, scribbled out a quick note and headed out of the Selkies tent.

At first everything looked fairly normal for a magical Carnaval. The tents were set up again. Fantastical people were milling about speaking languages Harry didn't recognized but loved to listen to.

That was right up until Harry walked around a couple of tents and nearly walked right of the edge of the turtle shell he was riding.

It took a long time for Harry to process what he was seeing. He might have been embarrassed about how long he stood there if it were something a bit more _normal._

The entire Carnaval was set up on the back of an island sized turtle that was steadily swimming through the swells of the open ocean.

Harry was just starting to realize how colossally terrible his plan had been when the turtle dove sharply into the water. Waved crashed up over the turtle's back and right towards Harry's face.

Harry lept towards one of the small coconut trees growing from the turtles back and hung on tight as the world shifted downwards.

Harry expected to get very wet but the water crashed up and around Carnaval as if it were protected by a sphere of magic. 'Oh, right. Magic' Harry thought to himself. He'd been expecting everyone to chew some magic plants or case a bubble head charm.

The giant sphere of protection was a lot more practical though.

Harry sat under the coconut tree and looked out at the sea in fascination. The turtle dove passed school of fish, herds of sharks, and down past wandering angler fish. They went so deep that the light above went out and the Carnaval was shrouded in darkness.

The floating Lanterns came out to light the walk ways. It gave Harry an advantage though. He was an outsider and surely others would recognised that if they could see him. Here in the depths of the ocean, it was impossible to see faces clearly. Even a powerful Lumos spell hardly seemed to make a dent.

Harry collected a few coconuts and took them back to Finn and Dudley. Dudley had gone out to collect wood and dried moss. He'd started a small fire and was explaining 'basic' math to Finn when Harry showed up.

"So if you have- oh Hi Harry! - if you have two stones and I give you 3 more, How many stones do you have?"

Harry hadn't done basic math since he went to muggle school. Harry knew the answer was 5, his skills hadn't gotten that bad but he couldn't remember any of his multiplication facts, or how to do long division. Adding fractions was a little fishy too. Harry cut open the coconuts, dished out the milk, cut up the flesh and fashioned the shells into bowls.

He sat and listened to Dudley give his impromptu lesson. When Finn looked bored, Dudley gave Harry a refresher course on some basic fraction work.

"If I give you some parchment, could you write out some worksheets for me to do each morning?" Harry asked while Dudley looked over his work.

"You want homework during the summer?"

"Well, I have Hogwarts homework too, but I should really be doing some math and science work." Percy Weasley had said the year before that loads of muggle borns and half bloods opt to live in the muggle world after Hogwarts. There weren't a lot of jobs in the Wizarding world. Harry wasn't a pureblood with connections like Ron or top of his class like Hermione. Harry might end up leaving the wizarding world after everything was all said and done.

It was best to be prepared just in case. He would get his High school diploma, apply to a couple of Colleges and Universities just in case.

Dudley pulled a couple of text books from his sports bag. One was a Science 9 text and the other was for Social Studies 9. "I can write you some math work and maybe you can read these and do the work at the end of each chapter?"

Harry took the books and grinned broadly, "thanks Dudley"

"No worries, don't suppose you can teach me any fancy magic?"

Harry thought about it. Spells were out, Dudley didn't have any magic but maybe he could do potions.

Harry pulled out his mini-library and grabbed his miniaturized first year potion text to resize it.

Fashioning one of the coconut shells into a small cauldron, Harry began walking Dudley through a forgetfulness potion.

Both Harry and Dudley were half expecting it to not work, but when Harry took a sip he forgot where he was and who Finn was.

For a very scary moment he even forgot that he and Dudley were getting on.

In wore off faster than it should have but Harry thought that might have been because they were using a coconut cauldron.

Harry lent Dudley his text book and a few ingredients.

He didn't get to use it right away though.

Harry wanted to investigate while they had the cover of near pitch black darkness.

From his sports bag, Dudley pulled a pair of night vision goggles.

Finn was tasked with looking after the tiny Fox and Norbert while Harry and Dudley did some recon.

They weren't two feet out of the Selkie tent when Dudley pulled Harry to the side.

"I don't hear anyo-"

"Shhh" Dudley ordered.

Harry stood for several second of nothing. There was no noise of movements, no one poped out in front of them. There was a putrid smell for a brief moment but that was it.

"Must have been one of your kind," Dudley whispered. His head was pointed down the path as if following someone's movements.

"You mean someone actually went past us?"

"Yeah but I only saw them on the infrared. I didn't hear them at all and when I turned the goggles off it was as if they vanished. Come on let's follow them.

Harry followed blindly for nearly an hour as they silently slipped behind the phantom that only Dudley could see.

Harry was seriously considering abandoning his cousin and going to find some food when Dudley pulled them aside and pointed at the Red, Orange, and Yellow tent that radiated heat.

There was no one there. There was no one there. There was no one, but then there was. A sinister looking man with sharp shifty features stood erect in at the mouth of the tent.

The man wore a red Ring Masters outfit.

"That must be him." Harry whispered.

"He looks shifty enough. A bit lie Piers."

"I thought you two were friends."

"We are, but Piers is shifty little fucker. I don't trust him at all."

"Great friend."

"At least I have friends."

"Who do you think sends me owls?"

"Owls for postage and quills for writing serious you lot are backwards as fuck." Dudley snorted. There was none of the usual malice in his tone but Harry still felt himself getting defenseless.

He wanted to cast a patronus and turn Dudley into a todd and then ask who was backwards but it seemed a bit petty given all that Dudley had done recently to help.

"So that's his tent then?" Dudley asked Harry.

Harry got a little closer after the Ringmaster disappeared inside. He poked and prodded the tent with his magic and sure enough there were enough wards on the tent to keep out a troll on a rampage. Dumbledore's office wasn't that well protected.

All they needed to do now was get inside. That was for another night though. For now they needed food.

Harry used a Point Me spell to lead them to the kitchens where they nicked a bit of food and cooking supplies.

Harry made stew for dinner that night while Finn taught them a little Mermish which was the language that Selkie, Mermaids, and the loch ness monster all spoke.

After, Finn made them both go swimming in the tank. Finn was adamant that both of them needed to work out every day.


	7. Ghost

Life on the back of a giant sea turtle became oddly routine fairly quickly.

All three boys went for a run up and down the cliff side in the morning. Then they had breakfast and did some studying. Harry and Dudley went exploring for the afternoon. They always came home with a little food for dinner. They studied a bit more, then they went for an evening swim. They dried off in front of the fire were they talked. Sometimes they shared anecdotes about their lives sometimes they talked about the news of their communities.

Harry talked about the Philosopher's stone, the chamber, and the dementors. He also talked about Wizarding politics and the Daily Prophet.

Finn talked about growing up in Vancouver, being sold by his older brother to the Carnaval, and the short time that a Mermaid lived in the tank with him. He also gossiped insanely about various people of the carnaval. News that he got from the occasional guest that wondered in and talked about what they had seen in previous exhibits.

Dudley talked about being bullied in Smelting, about deciding to work harder and his efforts to get in shape and improve his grades. He also talked about global warming, recent terrorism, and globalization.

Two weeks after the turtle first dove under water. Harry, Dudley, and Finn woke up to find that the tent was well lit.

Harry and Dudley packed up their stuff, cleaned up all the signs that they had been bunking with Finn and headed out.

The Ringmaster personally inspected each tent before sealing and shrinking it.

Somehow, Harry and Dudley needed to find a way off the sea Turtle on their own. They would have to meet up with the Carnaval again once they had properly set up shop.

"It's a good thing we've been doing so much swimming." Dudley joked dryly.

As each tent got packed up there became fewer and fewer places to hide. The Sea Turtle was swimming just below the surface. Soon enough they would breach the waves. With the sun shining brightly on the turtle's shell and the tents all gone there would be nowhere left to hide.

They would have to swim ashore.

"This is going to suck." Harry gripped.

He put a drying spell on both their packs. Then he and Dudley went to the very edge of the turtles shell and got ready to dive.

The turtle breached the surface in a spectacular spray of water just as the magical barrier collapsed. As the last of the protection vanished, Duley and Harry dove head first into the water.

They were a ways from shore with packs on their back and a very light breakfast. Harry knew it was going to be a very, very long day.

The swells of the open ocean only added insult to injury.

Harry was fairly certain that they'd both make it but there were no garienties and even if they did, they were in an unfamiliar country looking for a magical Carnaval.

The City on the shore looked huge even from the middle of the ocean and not all of it was visible.

After an hour of swimming, Harry wasn't sure how much progress they had actually made. The Sea turtle was invisible to them as soon as they dove off and the shore still looked far off.

Harry was starting to consider what he might be able to do with accidental magic when a small fishing boat came out of nowhere.

People started yelling at them.

In Spanish.

Dudley respond in perfect Spanish.

Harry swallowed a whole mouthful of seawater and immediately tried to cough out the taste of seaweed and salt.

"You speak spanish!" Harry looked stunned at his Cousin.

"They teach it at Smeltings. If you get an A, you get to spend the last week of classes in Spain. I've gone for the last three years."

Harry felt jealous. He wished he could go somewhere exciting for getting an Outstanding in one of his classes.

Dudley must have seen something in his face because he laughed, "you already go to school in a castle, what could be cooler than that?"

The fisherman helped them aboard. It wasn't an entirely anonymous rescue though. They barely had two feet on the ship before they were put to work.

They spent all day at sea working for the captain of the small fishing boat. In the evening, They were paid in fish and sent on their way.

"We're in Argentina," Dudley explained, having spent most of the day chatting amicably with the rest of the crew. "Buenos Aires To be specific. There are 43 Million people here."

"Fuck, finding the Carnaval is going to be impossible."

Dudley shook his head, "You can fly around on your broom and I can walk the streets and ask about." Where Dudley stored all that optimism Harry hadn't a clue.

"What do we do for tonight?" Harry looked around. They were in a very seedy looking part of town with crumbling cinder brick houses. It was the kind of place were emergency services refused to go.

Dudley lead the way. They walked until the sun began to set. What they finally came to was a graveyard.

It wasn't the type of graveyard that Harry was used to with grassy fields and rounded headstones.

This graveyard, La Recoleta Cemetery, was like a micro city for the dead. Dudley snuck them in and Harry made them invisible. The Guards swept the place then locked them in.

There were no typical headstones. Instead there were mausoleums, micro homes with staircases that lead into the earth. Some even had little sitting rooms with plush looking furniture inside.

"The guys on the boat said this place was haunted. I thought, if there are dragons, there must be ghost too, Maybe someone here can help us out." Dudley explained. He had pulled out the baby fox from his sports bag. The fox was restless from sleeping all day on the boat.

Harry let Norbert out too.

The Dragon and the fox roamed around the boulevards, climbing up trees and pouncing on butterflies that passed by.

" _Harry I like this place"_ Norbert announced.

The fox was trying to wiggle out from under Norbert who had the little creature trapped under his paws.

The fox slipped lose, nipped Norbert ear and dashed off, tail wagging happily when Norbert took flight and followed after.

"You understand him?" Dudley asked as they looked about the graveyard. It looked more like a posh, well respected neighbourhood and less like a creepy nightmare inducing graveyard.

"Sure. He speaks a version of Parseltongue. That's the snake language."

"You can talk to snakes?"

"I try not to," Harry admitted offhandedly, "They're never very friendly."

When midnight hit, ghosts began to glide from their home and wondered the path. They got a few strange looks and a couple of reprimands. The problem was that most ghost didn't speak Spanish and practically none of them spoke English.

Even the ones who did didn't have the time of night for the living.

" _Harry, I'm tired. When can we go to bed?"_ Norbert asked.

The little dragon had tired himself out and was sleeping on Harry's shoulders. Not to be outdone, the fox had leapt onto Dudley's shoulder and draped herself like a scarf.

" _Soon, Norbert, Soon,"_ Harry hissed back.

" _Is that Parseltongue I hear!"_ A very excited voice called from a well maintained back mosolime.

A pale green ghost came shooting out. " _Who are you lad? I'm Albert, Albert Slytherin at your service."_

" _Harry Potter sir."_

" _That accent, you're from the home country aren't you? A student of my father's school I hope!"_

" _Hogwarts?" Harry guest._

" _That's the one lad! Well now, as a pupil of my father school, we're practically family."_

" _I'm in godric's house."_ Harry pointed out. He was a little stunned by the ghost sheer enthusiasm. Albert Slytherin was almost worse than Colin Creevey.

" _I miss Uncle Godric. He visited my grave a couple of times. Really good man. Anyways. I heard you're looking for a place to stay! I happen to still have a house under the Protection. You're more than welcome to stay there."_

Even if Harry had a better option, he would have said yes to Albert Slytherin. The Ghost seemed to genuine that Harry found he couldn't say no.

The Ghost gave them the address and let them use the floo inside their mausoleum.

Dudley looked dubious at the idea of stepping into a fire, but he was too tired after the swimming, working on the fishing boat, and walking all over the city to argue much.

Harry had expected to come to a derelict manor.

Instead, the place was in pristine condition. It didn't feel very lived in but it was far too clean to be empty.

" _Hello?"_ "Hello?" Harry called.

A "pop" and then a house elf was standing in the front entrance.

"Hello Sirs, Welcome to the Slytherin Manor. I has prepared rooms for you. Ghost master is saying you are coming." The little house elf explained in perfect English.

"Harry…" Dudley looked at the curious little creature with wide dinner plate eyes and long elephant ears.

"Miss House elf, might I ask your name?" Harry asked as politely as he could.

Harry could heard Dudley mutter something about house elves and crazy wizards under his breath but Harry ignored him.

"I'm Ocean sir."

"Pleasure to meet you Ocean, I'm Harry, this is my cousin Dudley and his fox, and this little Dragon is Norbert. Thank you for your hospitality."

Ocean positively beamed with pride. She chartered happily the rest of the way to the guest rooms. She let them get settled in before giving them the full tour of the house, complete with swimming pool, library and impressive magical menagerie with thunderbirds and phoenixes flying about. Other magical animal seemed to be lurking about but none came to say hi.

"How long is Mister Harry Potter and Mister Dudley Dursley going to be here" Ocean asked that night when they were all sitting by the fire. The fox was playing with some old dog toys and Norbert was playing with some blocks that Harry had written the Parseltongue alphabet onto.

Dudley looked at Harry, "Well, Finn said it normally takes a week to get set up and then they are in town for a week, so probably two weeks."

"Well then, for the next two week here is your home, misters!" Ocean explained.


	8. Home

"Is that a gun?" Harry asked incredulously one afternoon when he get out towards the Menagerie only to find Dudley confidently shooting down plastic fibres that Ocean sent flying.

"Don't tell mom." was the first thing Dudley said. He flipped out his earbuds and smiled sheepishly. "Smeltings has marksmen classes. I've gotten pretty good so dad bought me own gun when I passed my handgun qualifications and got a liceasons."

"Marksmen classes?" Harry asked.

"You have a dueling club! We also have fencing but I'm rubbish at it. The others practice all the time with their Smelting sticks," Dudley pointed the the stick resting against a nearby bush. Harry hadn't realized his cousin had brought it along, "but I always get mine slapped out of my hand. I'm much better with a gun."

Harry stood for a moment while his cousin went back to shooting. He wasn't kidding. Dudley was deadly accurate. Harry went on to visit the Thunderbird and Phoenix in hopes of finding a couple of loose feathers he could turn into a quill. His last one had broken.

As Harry preened the magnificent brds his mind wandered to Smelting. What type of boarding school was Smeltings after all? They took their students to spain? They had fencing classes. Smeltings sounded far more posh a school then Dudley had any right to be in. The marksmen classes weren't really posh though. Marksmanship with a handgun is generally more … practical.

Harry gathered up the feathers he had, avoiding the thunderbird feathers that were still sparking and headed back to his math practice.

Life in the manor was positively perfect. It was hot like the Weasley house but it had all the resources of Hogwarts. They even had several books in Parseltongue about Parselmagic.

Harry spent his days running and swimming in the morning with Dudley, wondering the city in the afternoon and studying in the evening. He was making progress with his math and now he was working on Science and Socials. He was even teaching Norbert to write simple words with his parseltongue blocks.

The week was nearly up when Dudley came into the library with his Socials Textbook under one arm and a tray of evening tea resting like a waiter against his shoulder and palm.

"Hey harry, Ocean sent up tea."

Harry hopped up and grabbed the tray from Dudley. With a show of practiced wandless magic, Harry managed to pour them both tea. He had to add the milk and sugar on his own though. That was too tricky still.

"How was your day?" Dudley asked. His textbook resting open on his crossed legs.

Harry hummed, "Well pretty good. We had a good run this morning." Dudley grinned and nodded. They'd ran for nearly an hour and a half without stopping and gone for a half hour swim right after. Finn would be proud. "Then I went to investigate the magic community here. Ocean showed me how to floo there. The names are all in spanish so it took some practice to get them right. It sounds like there have been some delays with the Carnaval. I guess they went and got a new exhibit. It sounds like the Carnival will be set up by the end of next week. I think I know where it will be too."

Dudley lit up, "That's great! I guess everything is really falling into place. It's nice here too. I don't mind spending a couple weeks in this place." Dudley took a long spit of his tea, "it's starting to really feel like home."

Harry looked up in surprise. Sure he was feeling the same way but Harry wasn't welcomed in Private Drive. The closest thing he had to a home was Hogwarts.

Dudley smiled sadly.

"Did you know mom drank when she was pregnant?"

"Aunt Petunia drank?"

"While pregnant" Dudley nodded.

Harry had never seen his Aunt drink so much as a sip of Uncle verons whiskey much less have her own drink.

"Not a little either. She drank more than Uncle Vernon by a landslide. She was drunk all the time, out partying with friends."

"Aunt Petunia went out partying."

"Mom's younger than Aunt Lily."

Harry had never heard Dudley talk about Harry's parents much less call his mom Aunt. Aunt Lily was the right term is just felt so weird to heard Dudley call his mom that. No one called his mom 'Aunt Lily'. For the first time, Harry wondered what kind of friendship Harry might have had with his Cousin if his parents had survived.

"She was young and she made a lot of bad decisions. She thinks I have FASD. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder. She's got loads of books on it under lock and key in the basement."

Dudley paused to collect his thoughts.

"When I first got home it was just mom and me. Dad was off on some business trip and you were still at school. Mom came in and saw me reading a book on Shaka Zulu. She goes, 'sweetums, why don't you come downstairs and have some cake. Watch some TV.' and then she looked at my book with this sad sort of pity look. Not like she thought I couldn't understanding it, but like I couldn't even _read_ it. Like I couldn't read at all. I looked down at my page and for a moment I couldn't read it. I didn't recognize any of the letter or words or anything. I felt like my whole vision was swimming."

"It's always like that with mom. I'd start to learn something new like Drums, or Guitar" Harry remember Dudley taking up both of those instruments but neither lasted more than a week or so, "But then mom would give me a couple of looks, make a few passive aggressive comments and I'd just give up. She doesn't think I can learn at all. Like I'm going to just depend on her forever or go live in a home or something. I hate it."

'Sometimes, at school, the teachers are like that too. Like they are just humouring me. My teachers see me studying and they get this funny look on their face like it won't make a lick of difference but it's good that I have a sense of work ethic. My classmates are the worse though. They see everytime I lose my temper as a sign I'm going to grow into some Jack the Ripper type nightmare."

Dudley looked up at Harry making eye contact only briefly before looking back down at his tea, "I can't manage my emotions like you can. I see you get all pissy with Dad but then you always get this stern look on your face. You square your shoulders and you just walk away. I can never do that. I get real mad and then I just can't seem to calm down."

"Here it isn't like that. Ocean seems to think I can learn anything. Finn and you are letting _me_ teach _you_. Plus, when you saw me using me gun you just stopped and watched for a moment and then were like 'well there's that' and went to go hang out with your magical birds. Any time the councillors see me with my gun, they get this panicky look like they want to tackle me and put me in a straight jacket. I hate it."

"Here is much better."

Harry sat in silence for a moment watching Dudley take deep calming breaths. He wasn't sure what to say really. He never knew any of that.

"What does having FASD mean?" Harry had never even heard the term before. He gathered that kids get it when their parents drink during pregnancy but that was about it.

"It means it takes me longer to learn things. I don't get cause and effect so well. It took years for me to realize that if I'm mean to people they won't like me. I don't manage my money very well still. I don't really know what else. There are loads of effects from FASD and everyone is a bit different. I know that I can still be successful though. It just takes me a bit more time and sometimes I need help calming down."

Dudley looked suddenly very serious. "I'm going to be successful though. I'm not going to just give up like mom wants me too."

"I don't think Aunt Petunia wants you to give up," Harry bite out. It was hard to defend his aunt. She was such a cow.

Dudley laughed, "You're a crap lieing Harry."

"Whatever. Fuck what she wants. Be whoever you want to be."

"I want to be someone she is proud of."

"If she thinks you can't even read and you're reading about Shaka Zulu in your spare time then you already are. Aim higher, impress yourself."

Dudley grinned, "You're my Merlin. My wise old Wizard."

"Yeah right you're Arthur."

"The one true king!" Dudley declared, "I'll one day rule this country."

"Argentina?"

"You know what I mean!"

"Whatever loser."

"You even have the dragon."

"What does that mean for your little foxes?"

"Even kings have pets."

"Yeah cool exhatic pets like tigers, not foxes"

"I could get a racoon" Dudley smirked.

"Trash Panda? Yeah they just scream elegant."

"Whatever, I'm going to take my fox for a walk." Dudley pulled a leash from his pack pocket and gave a long low whistle. The baby fox, now nearly fully grown, came bounding into the library and sat obediently at Dudley's feet.

Harry grinned, "You have a way with Animals to get a wild fox that well trained."

Dudley grinned, "Everyone I walk past wants to pet her and choo after here. She loves it."

"You get all the ladies that way?" Harry teased.

Dudley grinned cockily, "I got five numbers last time.

"I call bull," Harry snorted.

"You just wait and see," Dudley stuck his nose up and walked out of the room, his fox obediently trotting after. He did look a little princely, harry admitted in the safety of his own mind. He'd never in a million years admit it outloud.

"Harry," Albert floated into the living room from the floor. The ghost visited every couple of days to see how they were and share stories. Albert seemed genuinely pleased to have someone around. "Could I ask a favour of you? I have a spell I want to perform but well," He waved to his pale green form.

"Sure Albert, what do you need," HArry asked, pulling down his tea and grabbing his wand.

Albert lead Harry down into the basement where the Spell casting rooms were. The rooms were specifically designed for more complex spells.

Albert Lead HArry over to a tomb which was laid out on a pedestal.

"Ocean found me this spell. You see there are all sorts of Slytherin artifacts still out there. I'm afraid over the years most have them have been cursed or have some sort of dark magic attached to them. There aren't any Slytherin left in the line so there is no one to clean up the mess. I feel terrible leaving all the junk out there for some poor soul to clean up. I was wondering if you could perform this spell," Albert motioned to the spell written out in the book, "It will gather all the loose cursed Slytherin artifacts so we can destroy them. Have you ever cast PyreFiend? No, well no bother I can show you after."

Harry read over the spell. It seemed as complicated a spell as polyjuice was a potion but Harry, Hermione and Ron had managed just fine the year before. Harry read the spell several times, mouthing the spell and practicing the complicated wand movements.

Finally, when he felt ready, He stood at the edge of the room and began casting. The spell had to be cast over and over until nothing else appeared. Harry had not way of knowing how long that would take but he gathered it would be a long time. The book strongly advised not stopping early. It was vague as to what the effects would be but it was sinister sounding.

Harry cast the spell once and a chair appeared.

He cast it again and another chair, nearly identical appeared.

Next was a coffee table, a bed, a tea set, several pairs of glasses, enough swords to outfit an army all summoned individually, armour, pendants, clothes, cups, books, rags, rings, tiaras, and more.

Harry ended up casting the spell over and over until it was mid morning the next day. When he was finally done. He stood in the doorway and cast fyrfiend and slammed the door shut in time to see the flames melting down everything inside.

"The magic in the room with control the fire so you don't have to bother. Well you do look rather tired. Sorry, I forget what it's like to get tired these days. You best go off to bed. I'll let your cousin know where you are." Albert floated off down the hall and left harry to stagger back up to his guest room in peace. Harry's head had hardly hit the pillow when he drifted to sleep.


	9. Igloo

Harry knew he should probably go get Norbert and Dudley. Afterall, both of them were keen to get back to the Carnaval and figure out a way to get Finn's pelt back and take take the collars off.

But it was already late in the evening when Harry had finally stumbled upon the Carnival entrance. Sitting promently at the entrance was the brilliant white tent. This time the door was open and snowflakes that melted in mid air were blowing out into the hot alleyways.

Thrilled and curious, Harry entered.

At once the world melted away into a sea of white. Harry immediately realized that he hadn't really thought his plan through. For one thing he was suppose to be looking for the Ringmaster. For another he just walked into a foot of snow in summer clothes.

He didn't even have his winter Cloaks with him.

Shivering uncontrollably, Harry looked around. A small circle of Igloos were sitting not far off.

Harry's mind whirled. Had the Ring Master really kidnapped a bunch of Canadian Inuit? It seemed like the sort of thing the devious Death eater might do, but it also seemed a bit far.

For one thing most Inuit didn't live in Igloos and for another the Inuit were Human Beings not Creatures. The Ringmaster seemed to make a distinction between the two.

Harry walked closer and noticed that the Igloos were massive. And there were white dogs tied up outside. They were odd looking dogs, fluffy like a husky but with round ears and no tail.

Oh. they were polar bears.

Harry cleaned off his glasses and looked at the Polar bears tied up outside massive igloos and rightly thought that they probably weren't for the Inuit.

Just then a yeti came out of one of the Igloos with a basket of fish. They walked right past Harry without noticing and into one of the other Igloos.

Harry turned and fled into the snow. He went as far as he could, desperately searching for the exit.

His legs turned red, then white then dangerously blue from the cold. His teeth chattered uncontrollably.

Harry started to get the delicious feeling that he was too hot. Much too hot he need to cool down.

Harry instinctively stumbled towards igloos again. He knew it made no sense to be hot when he was wondering in the snow but it was impossible to ignore.

At the edge of the circle of Igloos was a young Yeti, about Harry's size. The creature said something to Harry. When Harry didn't response, the yeti put a warm furry arm around Harry to steady him. Harry was then lead into one of the smaller Igloos.

There was fire crackling in the middle of the Igloos and a mat to sleep on. Several impressive looking furs were hung up here and there. The Yeti grabbed several One went on the ground for HArry to sit on, The rest were slung over Harry to warm him up. THe Yeti bustled about putting water on to boil. They were muttering something under their breath but Harry hadn't the faintest idea what. Weather that was from the delirium or because the Yeti spoke a different language, Harry couldn't figure it out.

"Onartok" The yeti asked.

Harry looked blankly up. The Yeti mimed feeling warm and then pointed to Harry.

Harry nodded. He felt much warmer now that he was in front of the fire and wrapped in furs.

Harry watched the Yeti make tea for the both of them. Under the considerable fur was a silver, runes covered, collar.

Harry frowned and pointed to it.

The Yeti scowled. Pointing about the room saying "Auk auk auk" over and over again. "Auk Omajuk. They said pointing to themselves as if making a very strong point to Harry. \

If he was to guess, Harry would say that the habitat that the Ringmaster made was demeaning to the Yeti who likely did not live in an igloo all year and eat nothing but fish but he was just guessing.

When the Yeti handed him his tea and a bowl of fish soup, Harry motioned that one day he would break the Yeti's collar.

The Yeti smiled thinly and patted Harry's shoulder.

When Harry was done, the Yeti lead him to the exit in the center of the Igloo circle and gave Harry a hug goodbye.


	10. Justice

"If we both hate using the floo, why don't we just walk there?" It was a reasonable question that Dudley was asking but Harry couldn't help feel annoyed.

Dudley had given a Petunia like leature when Harry got home with frostbite on his toes. Harry had tried to stay calm about it but Dudley managed to push every button last night and now, not eight hours later and with no breakfast, he was pushing some more.

"Dudley, He aren't going to waste all morning walking there when we can floo right to the Carnival in 3 seconds flat."

"Alright, but don't throw up on me or anything."

Harry nearly did out of spit but it seemed to childish so Harry swallowed his stomach and dusted himself off.

This time, Harry walked around the white tent, avoiding the allure of the drifting snowflakes. Dudley followed. The fox and Norbert were both back at Albert Slytherin's manor. Ocean had agreed to look after them. It seemed too risky to bring the pair to the Carnaval just in case the Ringmaster tired to put a collar on Norbert again, or capture the fox.

Harry suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. When he'd first meet Norbert the little dragon had a silver collar on but when he'd showed up at the Dursleys house it was gone.

Someone must have let Norbert out, but who?

"Something wrong?" Dudley asked.

Harry ignored him and resumed walking. He kept his eyes peeled for the red, orange and yellow tent but it seemed to have been moved further away from the hustle and bustle of the main attractions.

"It's pretty big inside the tents, maybe he's hidden his tent inside another tent."

Harry shuttered at the thought. If that was the case, then the Carnaval could very well be hundreds of times bigger than what they've already seen. It could be a labyrinth.

"Maybe we should try splitting up and meeting back here in a couple of hours," Harry suggested. He needed some time on his own to calm down a little before he said something unforgivable to his cousin and ruin the tentative friendship they were building.

Dudley gave an easy shrug, "Sure but take this. I'll call you in a couple of hours so we can meet up," Dudley tossed Harry a cellphone that was easily a tenth the size of the brick phone he'd seen Vernon carrying around from time to time.

"Where did you get this?"

"It's a satellite phone, I won it in a Marksman competition at school. It's the absolutely latest in cellphone technology so please don't lose it and try not to break it."

Dudley looked a bit forlorn at the phone. Harry had already explained the problem with mixing technology and magic a few times to Dudley. He'd even tired doing a warming charm in an internet cafe the two days prior with disastrous effects.

It was a massive sign of good will that Dudley would trust Harry with such a prized possession.

Harry stuffed it in the beast pocket on the inside of his jacket and patted it a couple of times to show his cousin that he meant to take good care.

Dudley grinned as they parted ways.

Norbert's family, the Yeti settlement, and Finn were all relying on Harry to save them and Harry wasn't making any progress.

He'd only had the one glimpse of the Ring Master and that was nearly two weeks ago when they were still underwater on the Sea turtle. Now the Carnival was back open to the public and Harry had wasted a day nearly dying from exposure in the snow.

Now that he was properly searching, he was coming up blank. Every day when Harry had visited the Canaval back in England, he'd walked past the red, orange, and yellow tent that blow out warm air. Now that he needed to find it again, it was as if it had never existed in the first place.

Harry knew he was letting the others down. Finn had looked so disappointed when Dudley and Harry had shown up empty handed. He'd tried not to show it of course, but the Selkie was itching to escape the large fish tank he lived in.

Norbert never mentioned Romania, but Harry knew the little dragon missed the reserve.

Harry felt dispondante. Why couldn't he solve this problem faster?

A screeching noise, desperate and in pain, pulled harry from his menecola musing.

Dashing further into the Carnaval alleyways, Harry came to a tight looking metal cage with a starving Thunderbird. The great beast was in a tiny cage, to small for it to stretch out in much less fly. With out enough room, the thunderbird couldn't call up a storm. It looked as if the Ringmaster was trying to starve it out until the bird became more docile.

Harry was enraged.

He was in luck though, the bird didn't have a collar on yet. The only thing keeping the bird trapped was the cage.

The metal had an impressive number of wards and such on it. It would certainly be a challenging cage to brake for a wizard, luckily Harry had grown up with muggles.

Harry pulled from his pocket a selection of tools he used for picking locks. He stood as if he were admiring the bird. On feel, he used his tools to slowly drop each pin. Harry shielded his work from prying eyes until the lock clicked open. Then he hide his tools and took a step back. He took Dudley's phone out of his pocket and slipped it under some loose dirt to hide it from view, then he threw his invisibility cloak on. The cloak would have fried the phone for certain but Harry was just beginning to realize that where he his the phone meant it could just as easily be stepped on by someone passing by.

Harry desperately hoped the phone had Dudley's luck and not his own.

There was no time to move the phone just in case.

The Thunderbird burst from their cage and took to the sky.

As predicted, the Ringmaster burst out of nowhere, wand raised and ready to strike.

However the Thunderbird was ready to deal some harrowing justice.

The great bird beat its wings, within three easy stockes a thunderstorm had been called up.

Lightning danced around the thunderbird. A great bang shocked the Carnival at the same time a massive jet of light burst from the clouds and struck the Ringmaster in the chest.

Harry had hoped that would be the last of the wretched Death Eater but the grizzly wizard was made of sterner stuff.

Fried but not killed, the Ringmaster staggered to a stand and pointed his wand up at the Thunderbird.

Again a bolt of lighting split the sky. This time it stuck the Ring Master's wand, splitting in into a spray of splinters.

The evil-minded wizarded looked stunned at their now empty hand.

Harry had to stuff his fist into his mouth to stop himself from laughing at the sight of stunned animosity.

Red from his burns, the Ringmaster fleed far from the angered Thunderbird.

The amiable look was framillar to Harry. Buckbeak had given him just the same look. Swallowing his apprehension, Harry approached the bird. He scooped up Dudley phone on his way. Grateful that it was still in working condition.

The Thunderbird stood still while Harry climbed up onto its back and stead himself between the massive, electrified wings.

With a massive stroke of its wings, the Thunderbird took to the sky.

Harry stuffed his fingers between the feathers of the bird and tried not to fall off.

If flying a broom was relaxing, Flying on the back of a thunderbird was soul-soothing. By the time the pair got back to the Slytherin Mansour, Harry felt entirely placid. Unwilling to get riled about anything, even the three, strongly worded voicemails on Dudley's Phone.

Harry gave his cousin a quick call and explained what happened before going to take the new Thunderbird to meet the others in the menagerie.

Ocean had to go fetch Dudley, since without someone magical to throw the floo powder in, Dudley couldn't get home.

Dudley seemed grateful that Harry had not in fact broken his phone as he had worried. He was suitable impressed when Harry re-told the harrowing story of freeing the Thunderbird, but he was quick to point out that if Harry had followed the Ring Master he could have found the Red, Orange, and Yellow tent.

At least they knew it had to be somewhere near where the cage had been.

It was progress. Something Harry hadn't experienced in a while.


	11. Knowledge

Warns against Hubris.

The next day the newly freed Thunderbird enjoyed her day in the Slytherin Mangerie with the resident phoenix and Thunderbird. In time, the Carnaval Thunderbird would return home, but a week or two of rest and relaxation was in order before the long flight home.

Meanwhile, Harry and Dudley headed over to the Carnaval. They dressed in casual summer attire with winter clothes shrunk down and stuffed into a backpack that Harry carried.

Harry brought his leather notebook and several ball point pens. He originally packed a quill but Dudley spent all morning making bird brain jokes until Harry relented. Today they planned to scope out the wards on the Ringmaster's tent. Harry had spent most of the night reading in the library. He was fairly certain it wasn't going to make too much of a difference. After all, wards were a massive area of study with over three dozen masters programs, and four schools of study devoted entirely to the subject. It made Harry feel more prepared though, so there was that.

Dudley climbed into the floo fire first. Harry threw the powder into the flames for him, because without magic the fire was useless. The Flames darken into a thick evergreen, safe for Dudley to step in the harth. In near perfect Spanish, Dudley commanded the flames to take him the the grounds of the Carnaval.

Harry stepped in after. In butured spanish, Harry requested that the flames take him the the grounds of the Carnaval.

Only something went wrong.

When Harry arrived he was standing in an open hearth that sat abandoned at the edge of a derelict plaza. He turned on his heels to floo back to the Manor only to find that the hearth was unlit and there was no jar of floo powder to be found.

Harry cursed himself backwards and forwards. They would lose a whole day of progress now. Without Harry, Dudley couldn't even see the wards much less study them.

Not to mention that without a fire and floo powder, Harry was stranded. Without Harry, Dudley was stranded. They were both going to spend the whole day just getting back to Albert Slytherin's house.

The week was quickly coming to a close, Harry didn't have time for this!

Just then, Harry's backpack began to sing.

Harry's first thought was of the Hogwarts Sorting hat. Something must have accidently turned the backpack sentient.

Then Harry realized that the song was only about 4 seconds long and it repeated itself. It was a ringtone.

Harry flung off the backpack and threw it open on the ground. Amid the shrunken winter wear, Harry grabbed Dudley's second phone.

"'Ello?"

"Harry?"

"Oh, Dudley, look I think I said the name of the plaza wrong. I'm in the middle of nowhere."

"That's not good."

"No it isn't. Look, maybe for today try tracking the Ring Master's movements. Maybe we can find some sort of rhythm between today and tomorrow. That way we know when to try and take down the wards."

"Minor problem with that Harry."

Harry sighed. The Ringmaster must have moved his tent again. Could this day get any worse.

"The Carnival is packing up. They'll be back on the Sea Turtle by noon. I just checked in with Finn. Seabrain has already been checked over by the Ringmaster, so I'm going to sneak in and bunk with him like we did last time. You need to get our stuff from the manor and get to the plaza before noon, Otherwise we'll lose you."

It was already ten thirty when Harry left the Slytherin manor and that was a while ago. If Harry was lucky, and obviously he wasn't, he might have an hour in total left. There was no way he could manage all of that. For one thing he didn't even know where in the city he was."

"I can hear you panicking. Relax, Get your disappearing shawl-"

"Cloak of invisibility"

"Sure Mary Poppins, whatever. Get on your broom and fly towards the ocean. Go along the coast until you find the manor. Tell Ocean to pack for you when you get there. She'll be a lot faster. You just worry about getting Fox and Norbert. Then floo your ass over here and sneak into the tent."

That actually sounded do able.

"Right, see you soon then I guess."

Harry wasted no time. He Accioed all of their clothes back into the backpack and took off into the air, throwing on his cloak as he went.

Harry darted through the clouds at full speed. The wind grated his skin and froze his fingers into place around the shaft of his broom. Even in the sweltering summer heat, at the speed Harry was going, he felt like his bones were growing icicles that needled up into his veins.

Buenos Aires had a ridiculously amount of air traffic in Harry's opinion. It was nearly as bad as London.

Harry had to take long arching sweeps to avoid getting sucked into Helicopter blades and airplane engines.

He knew before landing in the Slytherin courtyard that his flight had eaten up most of his hour.

Calling out to Ocean as he ran, Harry scooped up Fox. Who struggled against Harry's hold. The kit might act like a well trained purebred show dog for Dudley, but it was back to rabies and bush life around Harry.

" _Norbert! Get in here now! We have to go!"_ Parseltongue was not a notoriously loud language, but with with a struggling Fox under one arm and panic tunnel visioning Harry into action, Harry managed to make his voice fill the entire household.

Norbert glided down the stairs and landed on Harry's shoulders. Harry grabbed a handful of Floo powder and chucked it unceremoniously into the flames.

He stepped into the heart just as Ocean flung their sports bags in after him.

"Good Luck, come again soon!" Ocean wailed.

"Doors always open!" The ghost of Albert Slytherin promised. Harry heard only a syllable of each though as the flames rushed passed him in a torrented frenzy.

Harry staggered out onto the nearly empty field. There were only two tent's left and both were being packed up by a dozen or so people. There was no time to sneak into anything. Cursing. Harry flung the two sports bags over his shoulder.

With Norbert on his shoulders and the Fox kit slowly trying to chew his hand off, there was no way Harry was going to get his cloak of invisibility out.

With brash, foolhardy bravery, Harry followed the witches and wizards who disassembled the tents. They darted down through tiny alleyways, through the backs of small shops and restaurants.

Harry was reasonably sure they didn't realize he was following them. They all looked too caught up in their own rush to worry about being followed.

In very little time, the small group of wizards and witches immersed at a commercial dock. Without breaking stride they all ran down the deck and right off the edge. Vanishing in a puff and a crack at the very last minute.

Fuck, they apperated onto the Turtle.

Harry made a bee line after them. He looked down at his arms. There was no way in hell he was flying a broom with a fox, a dragon and two overstuffed sports bags.

Harry had never taken an appreciation course and he knew next to nothing about it. Not to mention, Harry had noticeably horrid luck. But a gryffindor isn't a gryffindor if they aren't suicidally brave.

Without breaking step, Harry flung himself off the dock and blindley apperated after the group he followed.

It was sheer dumb luck that Harry landed himself directly at the mouth of Finn's tent. Before anyone could notice that the Carnaval had picked up a stray, Harry darted in. He sprinted up the cliff side and out of sight behind a large boulder. If anyone came in to check on Finn and the fish tank, they would see nothing of the intruders.

Someone plied Harry's fingers free of the fox. Harry looked over to see Dudley looking rather pale and entirely unease.

Harry looked down at his arm to find that the bones of his wrist we're poking out. The demonic little fur ball had very nearly managed to eat threw Harry's hand.

"Oh dear," Harry muttered and then passed out from pain.

Harry woke to the sound of a cracking fire and the feeling of cool spray on one side and warm waves of heat on the other.

"I managed to make a healing balm using that potions text you lent me and the coconut cauldron," Harry could hear Dudley's voice but he couldn't muster the strength to open his eyes. He felt like shit.

"It worked in a way. But your hand doesn't look good. I think we need to get you to a nurse witch."

"Mediwitch," Harry mumbled. He had to bit his tongue to stop himself from throwing up. He was lying on his back and really didn't have the strength to roll over. If he threw up now, Harry was reasonably sure he'd down in his own vomit. Which given his track record, would be just his luck.

"Just give me a moment," Harry clenched his gut, forced down the overwhelming nausea and sat up.

Then promptly doubled over and stuck his head between his knees.

"Bad idea, Bad idea."

"That pretty much sums up your whole summer doesn't in." Harry was tempted to flip Flinn off but it meant moving so he opted not to.

"Look, I really appreciate the lengths you're willing to go to try and free me, but I -"

"Fuck off," Harry spat.

"Really think you should just go back to England. You're going to die if you keep this up."

"No."

"What do you mean No. You nearly had your arm chewed off and very likely rearranged your insides by blindly apperating. If you keep this up, you will die."

"No." Harry sat up straight and glared at the bleach blond slave in front of him. It was an injustice and a travesty that Finn's basic rights were trampled on. "We're not going to die and we're not going to give up. I will get your pelt and I will find a way to get those bloody collars removed. I'm here and I'm fine."

Harry looked down at his own banaged and bloody wrist. He pulled from within himself all the magic he could muster without passing out again and poured it into the wound. There wasn't much left in Harry's reserves but between what he could muster and the balm Dudley made, Harry was able to mostly fix his wrist.

Finn looked impressed but not convinced.

"We set that Thunderbird free," Dudley popped up from his place in front of the fire. He had something on a stick, probably a hot dog, and was getting ready to roast it. "Not to mention we've kept Norbert out of harm's way for nearly a month. Harry's been studying runes and wards for weeks now. If anyone can figure it out it's him. We can fix this."

By the time they got up the next day, it was dark out again. The trio had slept through the Sea Turtles descent into the abyss of the ocean.

"We need to go study that Ringmaster's tent," Harry told Dudley over breakfast. "If we do this right, we can figure out how to break in while we're down here. When the Ringmaster goes to check all of the tents before disembarking, we can brake in and get the pelt. He'll be distracted, it's the best opportunity we have."

"Alright, but we'll be down here a while probably, let's not rush things."

Harry pulled on his invisibility cloak, stashed his wand and headed for the exit. Dressed in all black with his night vision goggles on his forehead, Dudley followed after.

They found the Ringmaster's tent easily enough. The warm breeze cut through the dark chilly air.

"Finally," Harry hissed when they found a place to couch near the tent so Harry could examine the wards.

"What?"

"Finally my luck is changing. I know these wards. I studied them already. I know how to get inside. Not through the door though. There are about fifty more wards on the door, but if I can find a way through the walls, I can get in no problem."

"Alright Danny Phantom, How are you going to do that?"

Harry grinned. He already had all the knowledge he needed. He knew how to make a hole in the wards, Dudley could keep an eye out for the Ringmaster, and Harry could just apparate inside. He'd already apparated blind once. There was no reason he couldn't do it again. He just needed to make a big enough hole to get through.

"We can't do this right now." Dudley hissed in his ear. "What the hell are we going to do once we get the pelt."

"Give it to Finn."

"Then what morron. We're leagues under the water."

"Finn's a Selkie he can just swim off."

Dudley looked dumbstruck at Harry.

Right, how would they escape.

"We'll hide in there!" Harry pointed pure white tent near by. "The Yetis can hide us in the snow until we surfuse. In the meantime I can study their collars and figure out how to get them off."

Dudley clearly had more questions. Like how would they get Finn's collar off? How were they going to hide from the Ring Master in his own Carnaval? What if someone found them? How was Finn going to get out of the magical bubble without popping it and causing the whole Carnaval to drowned?

Unfortunately, he didn't get to say any of his rationally minded argument.

Harry had already made a person sized hole in the Ringmaster's tent and was casting his magic inside to try and get at least a little bit of a feel of what lay inside.

There was no way of see previously was what in the tent, but Harry could tell, more or less, where the empty walking space was. The found was what probably a hall way of some kind and appreciate inside.

It was the oddest feeling. Not at all like apperiating from the docks onto the sea turtle.

It was not one smooth whirlwind from one side to the next.

Half way through, Harry ran full force into a net. A ward made of runes and stitched onto the very fabric of the tent. 'Fuck, Fuck! I need to clip the tent!' Harry thought to himself, but he had no way of doing it.

The only thing he could do was appreciate backwards as fast as he could.

Harry's world felt like it was on fire.

"Shh, Shh, stop fucking screaming!" Someone ordered frantically, but Harry didn't hear them. The pain was mind melting.

Dudley clamped one hand over Harry's mouth and scoped his cousin up. The runs, swims, and daily walks were a gift from the gods. If Dudley had been any slower in moving his cousin he would have been caught for sure. Half the Carnival came running to see what injured animal was dieing. Luckily, Dudley was able to nimbly throw the invisibility cloak over them and dart straight into the impermeable snowy wasteland of the Yeti Settlement.


	12. Lucius Malfoy

Dudley Dursley was oddly comfortable in the world of magic even without his cousins confident guidance.

After going to school in Smeltings for three years, and spendings nearly a months with Harry, everything about magic seemed almost predictable. Dudley became laxed, he dropped his guard. It was his own fault really.

He just never expected Wizards to be gay.

Obviously gay people were normal enough, but that was just it. They were Normal. Wizards and Witches were … well not.

It was embarrassing how shocked Dudley had been when he hiked up the cliff to find Finn making out with some platinum blond dweeb. His first reaction was to draw his gun and press it to the boy's head.

"Who the fuck are you?!"

"Dudley, relax" Finn had never given an order in his life, but this was probably as close as he would ever get.

Reluctantly, Dudley lowered his side arm but he didn't relax entirely.

"I'm Draco." Platinum answered with such aristocratic arrogance that Dudley nearly shot him out of spit.

He figured Harry wouldn't approve though. If he had an guessed of how wrong he was, Draco Malfoy would have been swiss cheese. It was Dudley's ignorance that saved Draco in the end.

Dudley took a half a step back and assessed the situation. Draco was clearly a wizard. He had nearly identical robes to Harry. Finn seemed entirely fine with him being in the tent and Draco looked at home at the Selkies side. They were probably dating or as close to it as Finn could manage.

That didn't explain how Draco came to be in Finn's tent when the Carnaval wasn't even in Vancouver yet. By rights, only the Ring Master should be visiting. Draco had striking features and a snobbish attitude that made him hard to miss, yet Dudley had never seen him before. Somehow, Draco had managed to get into the Carnival to visit without raising alarm. He was clearly privileged to uninterrupted visits.

Likely, he clearly came from a rich family. If his superiority complex was anything to go by, not a terribly nice family. Not the kind that earned their riches. Maybe his family had investments within the Carnaval.

Draco wasn't the sort who knew how to share so he was likely the only son. Therefore, it wasn't a sibling who invested in the Carnival. Draco himself was too young so either his parents or an Aunt or Uncle.

"Where's your father?" It was a hunch. Not a terribly good one either. Dudley knew for a fact that if he were in Smeltings, he'd be reamed out for such faulty logic but Draco and Finn didn't seem to notice.

If anything they both looked equally shocked.

"I thought you were a muggle" Draco sneered.

Dudley pistol whipped him.

Dudley never pretended to be even tempered.

"You great bleed oaf-"

Dudley pressed the muzzle of his gun to Draco's forehead which shut up the pretentious prattling twit.

"Where is your father?"

"In talking with the Ringmaster. I wasn't invited because Father suspects I don't approve of the Carnaval and doesn't want me interfering with his investment." The dweeb sneared.

Finn pushed gently at Dudley's wrist until the gun was lowered and Draco was out of immediate danger.

Dudley still felt like he was teetering on manslaughter and his face like showed it.

"Look, obviously, Mr. Malfoy and the Ringmaster don't know about us. But-"

Dudley had the sickening sense that Finn was about to spew some overly sentimental tripe.

Finn rained himself in though, "Draco and I are … well we are what we are on our own terms."

"What about getting your pelt back?" Dudley asked.

Draco sneered "I've already tried. It's not use. Once my father passes then I can negotiate Finn's release but Father won't hear of it now."

Dudley smeared, "Look here montague-"

""It's Malfoy!"

"Whatever. If you care about someone, you don't just give up because it's hard."

"You got a better suggestion?" Draco crossed his arm defensively.

Finn looked stricken .

Dudley pursed his lips. There last hair brained scheme had landed Harry in a Yeti's tent. He was still recovering weeks later.

"Obviously we can't rush anything. Nothing we've tried so far has worked. But that doesn't mean we give up. We need to regroup a bit. Maybe leave off with getting the pelt for now. In the meantime we need to figure out how to get the collars off. Since you're already snogging Finn and staring longingly into his eyes, do us a favor and sketch out what the collar says."

Dudley pulled out a bit of parchment form his bag and a muggle pen. Platinum looked dubious at the pen but took it nonetheless.


	13. Marauder's Map

Harry's world became a mundane muted existence for three weeks as his injuries healed. He was confined to the fur bedroll that the young Yeti provided for him. Dudley on the other hand, spent his time exploring the Carnaval and visiting with Finn.

Most of the Yetis were Misanthropic recluses, but a couple of the more affable members came by to sit with Harry. They thought Harry a few words like kâk which means hungary and Ikke which means I'm cold. They helped him get by, but without Dudley coming by to chat, Harry was certain he would have gone mad.

He was a patchwork of burns now. The Yeti's had done the best they could but they were better equipped at treating frostbite than third degree appraration burns. Dudley made pain relief potions, and burn slaves with the few ingredients he had left. The coconut cauldron dimed the effect but it was certainly better than nothing.

"How was Seattle?" Harry asked Dudley when he next came to visit. Harry could finally get up and move around the small tent. Soon he'd be able to move about the Carnaval as well.

"Not as cool as that Mexico city was. Interesting enough though. I got a couple of souvenirs to show the lads back at Smelting. They'll think it's great that I saw so many cities. We're in the ocean again by the way. We should be in Vancouver pretty soon though. It's a short trip."

Not knowing his American and Canadian cities, neither boy knew just how close the two cities were but Finn had assured them that the trip wouldn't be more than an hour or so tops. They wouldn't even go under water this time.

"When we get there, I want to walk around a bit outside this time."

Dudley hummed non committedly. He wasn't thrilled with the idea of wandering off out of the Carnaval again. So far they had traveled from London, England to Bosnia Aries, Argentina, to Mazatlan, Mexico, to Seattle, USA, and now they were on their way to Vancouver Canada. There was no obvious rhyme or reason to the path the Carnival was making beyond vaguely northwards for the second half of the trip. They were about as North as one dared venture in North America now though. There is no telling where the Carnaval would head to next.

It had been harrowing enough getting to the Carnaval in England, then Harry had damn near killed himself in Argentina. Dudley was of the opinion that it was safer just to stay where they couldn't get left behind.

Harry, however, was a force in and of himself. If he really wanted to go, there was absolutely nothing Dudley could do to stop him.

Sure enough, within hours, Dudley stood melancholy at the edge of the Carnival entrance while Harry hurried off to grab a map of the city from a nearby tourist booth.

"We'll only go out for a few hours. It'll be fine. Look they have a really cool forest near the downtown, it's like Central Park in New York but the trees are way bigger. I heard they have monopoly money here too."

Harry pointed the duo towards Stanley Park. Harry half expects more igloos and less Skyscrapers. He didn't expect a slightly wetter, smaller version of London but that is precisely what he got.

"I'm not sure what you expected," Dudley huffed when they finally settled for lunch in Granville island near the downtown core of Vancouver. "Pretty much all big cities are the same."

"They are a bit more polite here," Harry looked around for anything distinctly Canadian but most of it was manufactured to suit tourist demand. Mini Canoes made in China, Stuffed Bears with Mounty jackets made in Thailand, even Canadian Magnets made in Seattle, USA. There doesn't seem much that was truly Canadian.

"Not to change the subject-"

"Ah. but you are" Harry snorted.

"We need to get back to London soon. Like by the end of next week. Both of us need to get to London to get back to school. You might have brought everything you need, but I need to stop in at Mom and Dad's house."

Dudley could see his cousins mind wirlying with half throughout schemes.

"Look I don't think we're going to get the pelt this summer." before Harry could raise himself up for a heartfelt fight, Dudley plowed on, "We, and by 'we' I mean you, can study the design on the collar while you're at school. Give it a semester. We'll meet up at Mom and Dad's house over the winter holidays to make a game plan on how to get Finn and everyone else out of the Carnaval."

Harry glowered at his french fries.

"Look, I know it's not the answer you want to hear, but if we rush things someone will get hurt again or the Ringmaster will figure out what we are planning and put yet more defenses up. Even in the best case scenario we only get Finn, the Dragons and the Yeti's out. We need a way to get everyone out."

"Like one big escape plan. The Great Escape style?"

Dudley pursed his lips. He wasn't even sure how Harry knew about the old war movie given that Harry never seemed to want to watch TV or Movies when they were on. He always stowed himself away upstairs.

The movie was a decent example, only even in the movie not everyone got out of the POW camps.

"We need something concrete. Not necessarily foolproof but something as near as. This will be a big operation. You handle the collar and the find a way to track the Carnival and I'll start looking into the logistics of moving everyone out of harm's way."

The Carnival was a vast empire of enslaved magical Creatures. To bring everyone to freedom with no casualties was going to take fitness. Far more than Dudley realistically thought he had. But if Harry could fly a broom and light a fire with a wave of a twig then Dudley sure as hell could managed a little logistical nightmare.

Harry, sitting across from his cousin, was too lost in his own thoughts to notice the look of resigned dread playing over his features.

Harry was thinking about the intricate runes that were carved in microscopic bands along the collar. Each rune was carved so fine that in total they merely looked like an intricately carved stripe.

Neither of the two boys felt up for the challenge but they were equally unwilling to back down.

At least Harry had an idea of where to start with tracking the Carnival.

"I've got a map." Harry announced suddenly enough to stir his cousin from his mormose thoughts. "But I need a larger map. A detailed one of the world. Like one of those wall maps for school."

Dudley frrowned, "why's that?"

"I think I can charm the world map so that we can track the movements of the Carnaval on it. My Dad and my godfather charmed a map of Hogwarts so that you can see who's where."

"Do you know how it works?"

"Well…"

"So no you don't. Well you have less then a week to figure it out and make your own. I'll get us some plane tickets to Vancouver." How he was going to do that, Dudley had no idea. However, as his best mate Piers always said, "If there's a will, there's a way!"

When the bill for lunch and been paid, the duo went off in search of a map for Harry. Once they had it, Harry went back to the Carnival to get to work and Dudley went in search of two plane tickets to London.

Time was not on their side, so Harry went straight back to the Yeti Tent to get to work. He spent the rest of the day and the entire next day working on the map.

Dudley came and went at odd hours. Each time he came back to the Carnaval he looked more stressed. Harry was fairly convinced his cousin had stopped sleeping entirely.

The day before they were hoping to Depart, Harry woke in the Yeti tent to find Dudley had either never come back or had already left again. Either way, Harry was exhausted and needed a break. He was on scheduled to have his map completed. The last step was to anchor a couple of creatures from the Carnival to his map. Like planting tracking beacons.

He opted to visit the dragons first, Norbert had taken Dudley's fox there so that they could both avoid the cold.

Norbert intended to leave the Carnival with Harry, so the anchor had to go on one of the older dragons. Harry swallowed his fear at being so close to a massive, man eating beast. He performed the necessary magic and then got the hell outta dodge. Norbert said his goodbyes to his family and left as well.

With Dudley's fox around his shoulders and Norbert sitting atop his head, Harry went to visit Finn.

Did he ever get the surprise of his life. Nearly splitting himself in half hadn't shocked Harry out of his skin half as much as coming face to face with Draco Bloody Malfoy sunbathing with Finn.

"Ugg, what the hell!" Harry turned away from the Blonds blinding flesh and tried to erase the scarring mental image. "What in the flying fuck Malfoy! What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same thing. I saw that oft of a cousin-" Harry whipped around, wand ready to hex Malfoy into a thousand piece.

The blond princely prick was sporting a nasty looking bruise and a golf ball sized lump on the top of his head. Harry winced sympathetically.

Malfoy, at the same time, seemed to be taking in the patch work burns that still marred Harry's skin. "Eventful summer I see".

Norbert seemed to sense something was amiss. He began to beat his wings and bearing his teeth. Taking his cues from the dragon, Dudley's fox took a flying leap and bite Draco Malfoy's arm. Draco lept up grabbing wildy at the fox.

"Petrificus totalus!" Harry hoolared.

Malfoy managed to block the jinx with the fox who stilled entirely, jaw still firmly clenched on Malfoy's arm.

Norbert freaked out. The fox was too still now. Norbert began blasting Draco with vengeful fire.

Draco dove behind one of the stones and began chucking rocks haphazardly at Norbert's menacing form.

Harry avoid the first six rocks, but the seventh caught him right in the chest and sent him hurtling off the cliff and down into the fish bowl.

The battle between Draco and Norbert waged above. All Harry could see of it was the jets of colourful lights and the hot blazes of fire.

Harry, on the other hand, was surrounded by curious and not entirely friendly fish. Harry suspected a couple were piranhas because they began to tip and bite at his caffs.

Harry swam as hard as he could towards the small outcrop of rocks that was low enough for Harry to pull himself up out of the water.

Dripping wet and coughing water up from his lungs, Harry made his way back to the top of the rocks.

When he got there, Draco was standing behind Finn who had the Fox cradled under one arm and Norbert in the other.

"Baby Dragon's scare easily Draco," Finn was explaining calmly.

"Well what about that!" Draco pointed emphatically at Harry.

Harry pulled a fish from off the back of his leg and tossed it back into the water.

"That is Harry James Potter and he is the one who nearly died trying to save me. Be nice Dray."

"Dray?!" harry mouthed.

Draco frowned.

"Mind your own damn business Potter."

"This is his business," Finn said firmly, "He's trying to get me out of here. They are making real progress Dray."

Draco looked conflicted. He looked to Finn with a hopefully glow but then his eyes turned stone cold when they were turned to Harry.

"Alright Potter, Fine."

'Fine?"

"Fine, you can help."

"Help?!" Harry sputtered, "what planet do you live on?"

"Finn is my boyfriend. I don't you need you waltzing in here. I can handle this," Draco seemed to catch Finns disapproving frown, "but if you're helping anyways, that's fine. We can talk more about it at Hogwarts."

"Talk? At hogwarts? Harry would have rathered burn his broomstick.

Finn looked imploringly at Harry. The slight shine of Finn's collor caught harry's eye. "Alright, we'll talk more at Hogwarts." With the briefest of noddeds, Harry collected Norbert and Dudley's fox. He cast the needed charms on Finn and then headed back to the Yeti tent to wait from Dudley.

Just after midnight, Dudley showed up with a duck tucked under one arm. He had half a pant leg missing, it looked as though it had been chewed off, and a purple shirt that looked to be three sizes too big. He was panting madly, his eyes twitched in every direction but didn't seem to really focus on anything.

Slowly his breath evened out. He put the duck down at his feet and started pulling sticks, plastic spoons and chopsticks from his hair.

"I thought you were getting plane tickets?" Harry looked in awe at his cousin.

Dudley pulled a freezer ziplock bag from his belt and handed it to Harry. Through the clear plastic Harry could see two series of tickets from Vancouver to Heathrow London. There would be a half a dozen stops, but once there Harry could take the train to Kings Cross and be at Platform 9 ¾ with more than enough time to catch the train to school.

Dudley, who didn't start his term until a few days later, had enough time to get back to the Dursleys house, get his things together and drive off to his prestigious private school.

Harry looked up at his cousin. Dudley was inspecting a massive flowering bruise on his side. The duck at his feet was trying to eat his shoe laces.

"What happened?"

Dudley paled, his motions stilled, "let's not talk about it."

"I really think we ought to."

Dudley ignored him. He lead to the duck into the Yeti tent. By the time Harry clamoured after him, Dudley was already wrapped in blankets, the ducked tucked under his arm again. He appeared to be asleep. Whether from exhaustion or a feral need to avoid Harry, no one could tell.

Reluctantly, Harry followed him to bed. There was so much to talk about. Malfoy was here. Dudley had a duck? They finally had a way home and a method to track the carnival. All the mystery and excitement had to wait until Daybreak now. Harry was certain he would explore from the weight of it.


	14. Neville Longbottom

Airplanes are unpleasant at the best of times. The last minutes tickets that Dudley had secured took 48 hours to get from Vancouver to London. They flew Vancouver to Calgary, then to Edmonton. After a short layover, they went up to Yellowknife, down to Montreal, back west to Ottawa, out east to Fredericton, down to New York and finally over to London. 7 layovers in two days, countless hours on a plane and an unprecedented amount of illegal magic later and they were finally back on home soil. Harry waited for his Aunt and Uncle to pick Dudley up from King Cross before heading to Platform 9 ¾.

When they showed up, his Aunt and Uncle were oddly silent on their disappearance. Harry wondered if Dumbledore had done something to them to prevent the police getting called.

Dudley didn't seem to worried about it though, so Harry opted not to voice his concerns. Despite months of cooperation, Dudley was still cagey about magic being performed around him.

Dudley took his meager belongings and his new pet duck and fox. Harry hide Norbert in his backpack. They shared a brief but heartfelt goodbye. The pair had plans to meet again in December. In the meantime, Harry would track the Carnaval's movements. As often as possible, he'd update Dudley. He'd also find a way to get the bloody collars off. Then in December, they'd hopefully get Finn's pelt back and start breaking out the Carnaval Slaves.

Harry watched Dudley and his folks walk off towards the car park. Harry turned and made his way through the dizzyingly traintunels and walkways until he found himself once again at platform 9 ¾.

"Hiya, Harry!" Ron and Hermione were already on the platform.

Ginny, Fred and George must have gone to find a compartment because only Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were there. Even the grangers has headed off to battle their way back to their car.

Harry made his over to his friends. "Hey Ron. Hows was your summer?"

"Good mate, good. Did you hear the news? Apparently something big is happening at Hogwarts. Professor Mcgonagall came over to see mom part way through the summer. She was really tight lipped about it!"

"I think we must be starting an exchange program again. Did you know that in 1830 there was a exchange program with witches and Wizards from America to come to britain? I hope they do that again, wouldn't it be lovely to meet people from America?" Hermione wrapped her arms around Harry in a brief hug, then use the momentum to push both Harry and Ron towards the train.

"Bye mom! See ya Dad!" Ron called over his shoulder as the trio made there way to the back of the train.

There weren't a lot of spare compartments for the trio, but they eventually found one. A Slytherin second year had been in the compartment, but they opted to surry off when they saw the three loud, rowdy Gryffindors enter.

"What about your summer Harry?" Hermione asked.

Both her and Ron looked at Harry expectantly. Harry hadn't got any mail over the summer, but so much of it had been spent traveling the world. He suddenly felt a phantom guilt at all the unanswer mail.

"Did you get mom's cake?" Ron asked.

Harry had honestly totally forgotten about his birthday. It went without celebration for so long that without teachers or friends to remind him, Harry went right on past it without notice. Molly's cake was probably sitting stale on his bed right now.

"I wasn't with the Dursleys this summer. Well I mean, I was for a part of it."

"What do you mean? Where did you go?" Hermione asked.

Harry jumped into an abridged version of his summer. He opted to leave out how Dudley and Piers broke his arm at the beginning. It seemed unfair after all Dudley had done during the summer.

"Blimey Harry, that's crazy!" Ron seemed awestruck.

Hermione looked calculating. "You'll need to switch into Rune's studies then. You want to avoid looking suspicious about studying runes."

"Malfoy. He has a boyfriend" Ron asked.

"Yes Finn. If I'm taking Rune Studies I guess I'll drop Divinations."

"Why not drop Care of Magical Creatures?"

"Na, I'd rather drop Divinations."

"Finn's the selkie right? Draco Malfoy is dating a Selkie?"

"Ron, it's best to avoid starting any rumours," Hermione tisked, "If word gets out, it could put Finn's life in danger. No doubt Mr. Malfoy would not approve. We all know what the man is capable of. We can't say a word of any of this until the Creatures of the Carnaval are free!" Ron looked rebellious for a brief moment but his imagination seemed to kick in. The fact was, they did know what the pure blood aristocrat was capable of and it wasn't pretty.

The train whistle blow outside. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked out the window at the waving parents and the last frantic stragglers running for the train. One of them was the framillar shape of Neville Longbottom stumbling his way towards the train with his massive trunk.

"Lets go give him a hand," Hermione grabbed Harry, "Ron stay here and keep an eye on our things." Hermione took out her wand and levitated Neville's Trunk. Harry reached out a hand and helped Neville up onto the train as they began to move.

"Thanks guys" Neville weazed.

"Come on, you can sit with us," Harry lead the way to the back of the train where Neville was waiting.

They talked about Neville's summer in his greenhouse, and Hermione summer reading at various Muggle parks. As they neared Hogwarts, the conversation turned again to Harry's summer and his plan to free the Creatures.

"Harry, the Longbottom house can help," Neville grinned eagerly.

"How do you mean?" Harry asked skeptically. He hadn't meet every Longbottom but he'd meet enough to get a general picture of the family. It was hard to imagine any of them breaking Creatures out of Captivity.

"We have a bunch of unused properties. I can give you a couple of the bigger ones to use as a temporary safe house. There is an old castle in Scotland we own that is right beside where the Carnival comes. They come every year, but never on the same week twice. Generally it's some time during the Winter Break.

Harry lit up, "Neville that's brilliant!" Another piece of their plan had fallen into place.


	15. Ollivander

Weeks passed in an exciting whirlwind. Harry's spare time was eaten up by classes and Triwizard tournament preparations. By the time November came about, Harry felt himself starting to feel overtaxed. A long weekend brake was well overdue. Harry waved off Hermione's nagging to study and Ron's offer to play a pick up match of Quidditch. Instead, Harry head out to Hogsmeade. While the other students meandered the small shops, Harry ducked into Hogshead and flood over to Diagon Alley. There was something to be said for the larger bustling alley way.

Harry started by heading to the ice cream parlour for a winter treat. When the snow started to sick, the parlour would bring out warm drinks and pastries to pick from. Harry grabbed a still warmed danish and a mug of hot Apple Cider to sip on. He wrapped himself in his winter cloak and settled outside on a snow covered bench to watch the people come and go.

Harry say friends of his in the face of people that passed. A middle aged women in a business cloak passed that looked like Hannah Abbott. A middle aged man with oranging skin passed who looked like Oliver Wood. Another sleazy looking man passed who looked almost identical to the Ringmaster.

Harry let the man wonder from his peripheral vision until his mind caught up with him. Harry whipped around to stare at a man who was certainly the Ringmaster. There was no mistaking the opiomania in his eyes or the treamour in his ever-moving fingers.

Harry abandoned his treats and slipped through the streets. The Ringmaster headed straight for Ollivanders. Harry slipped in after him. Harry pulled his invisibility cloak on after him and settled himself in the corner to watch the man.

"A repair to you wand is t?" Ollivander asked. The wand makers eyes flickered to Harry but he didn't say a word. Ollivander looked oddly ill at ease around the Ringmaster.

Harry watched as Ollivander took the wand in to the back room of his shop. Harry watched the Ring Master poke and proud various things on the counter while he waited. When Olivernder appeared again, he out the Ring masters wand on the counter, just out of reach.

Much to Harry's surprise, Ollivander looked straight at Harry While he suggest the ringMaster look at the side room to see if there were any wand polishes that might meet his needs. Ollivander then lead the Ringmaster into a second room, leaving Harry to sneak up to the Ringmaster's wand. Harry slipped behind the counter and took the wand in hand. He pulled from his back pocket a very small knife.

He carved a small ring of miniature runes so light they were entirely invisible to the naked eye. They would do the trick though. WIth his own wand, the Ringmaster could not perform Dark Magic or any Magic with the intention of causing pain for the sake of pain. It wasn't much, but Harry hoped that it would stall the abuse for a time.

Harry slipped back out the shop without any further notice. Slipping the invisibility cloak off his shoulders, Harry headed back to his treats at the enar by Ice Cream Parlours shop.

Harry sat at his table and watched the door. When the Ringmaster came out of the shop, he didn't look upset In fact, he looked none the wiser of what his wand now held.

A moment after the Ringmaster slipped out of Diagon Alley, Oliver Nader came out of his shop and wondered passed Harry and into the Ice Cream Parlour. He came out again with two Hot Chocolates. He placed one in front of Harry.

"I've seen what you did," Ollivander stated. He didn't look at Harry. He looked out over the Alley just as Harry did, "It will do that man some good. That being said, I don't need to interfering with my business. I'll let it pass this time, but never again. Understood Potter?"

"Yes, Sir."

Ollivander left the table, his Hot Chocolate untouched and headed back to his shop. Harry spent the rest of the day at his table watching the alley and enjoying the strange solitary feeling of being uninterested in a busy street.


End file.
